Meet The Muggles
by SweetDeamon
Summary: "Remus stared in bewilderment at Teddy as the boy bounced up and down upon his toes excitedly. "Let me get this straight," the werewolf said slowly with a frown. "You want me to send you to...muggle summer school...?"" AU RLNT. Sequel to Meet the Lupins!
1. The Final Straw

_Note: Hello there! This is **Meet the Muggles**, which is the second story in the **Meet the...** 'ficverse, the first being **Meet the Lupins**! Yes, Carrie and Teddy are back! XD_

_I said I was going to finish **The Dark Creature's Child** before I started a new fic...but...well...I lied! I couldn't really help myself, especially after all the lovely reviews for **Meet the Lupins**. I will be finishing the other story, however, so don't worry those of you who are reading it. _

_**This story can stand alone** if you haven't read the first one and can't be bothered. All you need to know is that Caroline "Carrie" Winters is a muggle who moved in next door to the Lupins, befriended Teddy and found out about the Wizarding World! This is an AU 'ficverse and Remus and Tonks are alive._

_**This story is dedicated to the readers of Meet the Lupins**, because I had no idea that story was going to be so popular. Thank you for your wonderful reviews!_

_Well, enough note writing, let us get on with this brand new, shiny story!_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any profit from this piece of writing. However, Caroline "Carrie" Winters, Cleopatra "Cleo" Clancy and their families are my own creations._

**1: The Final Straw**

It was the last day of school before the summer holidays, and Caroline Winters sat upon the dull brown plastic chair, shoulders hunched and arms folded firmly across her chest. For the most part, she kept her eyes upon her shoes, but she could not seem to help but glance up at the door to her right every so often, biting her lip at the sign of the highly polished plaque that read "Headmistress".

It was not the first time that Carrie had found herself sat outside of Mrs. Basilton's office. Indeed it was not first time that she had found herself sat outside waiting for her parents to finish their meeting with the headmistress, either. Carrie had been summoned to see the head of Oakhurst Manor School some five times over the course of her first year there, and this was the second time that her parents had been asked to attend.

It wasn't that Carrie was a badly behaved child. She wasn't disruptive in class, she was impeccably polite to her teachers and she always completed her homework on time. She had never received detention for being late, her uniform was always neat, she never forgot her homework planner and she always made sure that it was signed by her mother at the end of every week.

The problem with Carrie was that she was a daydreamer. She spent most of her time at school off in her own little world, staring out of the window, or doodling in the margins of her exercise book. If it wasn't for her friend Cleo giving her a nudge every now and again, Carrie supposed she would probably fail to write down her homework assignments, and she would forget to feign interest when a teacher asked her a question. Her quality of work, though always completed on time, was mediocre in the extreme...on a good day. Most of the time it was just plain poor.

I don't know, Miss. I'm not sure, Sir. Carrie didn't say much else to her teachers, and every time they would sigh and tell her: That's because you're not listening, Caroline!

She knew that school was important and she knew she needed to try her best to pay attention, but Carrie just couldn't seem to help herself. For over the past year she had developed an obsession of sorts, a preoccupation, a distraction that just never went away.

Carrie Winters was obsessed with her neighbors

She did not like to think of it as an obsession really, that made her sound a bit creepy, but if she were entirely honest that was probably what it was. She would spend her time in class wondering where they were, what they were doing, and if she might catch sight of them on her way home. There were three primary reasons for Carrie's constant wondering. Firstly, the neighbors' son Teddy Lupin was Carrie's best friend, and during term time she missed him terribly because he would be away at boarding school. The second reason was that Carrie was equally as fond of his parents, Remus and Dora, and it made her happy to think of herself as part of the family.

The third reason why Carrie was obsessed with her neighbors..well, she supposed it ought be the first reason actually, because it was by far the biggest and most exciting reason, was this:

The Lupins were magical.

Not magical in the sentimental, fluffy sort of way that simply meant she thought they were amazing, nor magical in the sense that they liked to pull rabbits out of hats in their spare time.

No, the Lupins were magical as in proper, real magic. Yes, Carrie lived next door to a couple of wizards and a witch. A werewolf and a pair of shape shifters. And she loved it.

But of course, she mused dully as at long last the door to the office opened and she heard her parents' murmured thanks and farewells to Mrs. Basilton, nobody could know the truth about the Lupins, she had been sworn to secrecy, and so she had little to say to her parents when the door swung shut behind them a moment later and they stood, staring down at her despairingly.

Carrie stared up at them, lip caught between her teeth.

Mr. Winters sighed heavily, arms folded across his chest as he eyed his youngest child and only daughter with a frown.

"Carrie, Carrie, Carrie," he mumbled, shaking his head sadly. "What are we going to do with you?"

"We're going home." Mrs. Winters announced, and with that she led the way down the deserted school corridor, her high heeled shoes tapping furiously as she went.

Carrie got reluctantly to her feet and trailed after her mother, her father's hand coming to rest upon her shoulder as he walked beside her.

"What's been going on this year, hm?" Mr. Winters asked softly as they rounded a corner and began to make their way down a flight of stairs. "It's not like you, Carrie, you weren't like this at primary school..."

"It's that Cleopatra Clancy, isn't it?" Mrs. Winters accused furiously, pausing at the bottom of the steps to shoot her daughter a glare. "That child is away with the fairies and Caroline is copying her!"

Carrie fixed her gaze upon her shoes. There was a degree of truth to her mother's accusations, for there was no doubt about it; her friend Cleo was definitely away with the fairies.

Or the witches, or the warlocks and the wizards perhaps.

Carrie had met Cleo on her first day at Oakhurst Manor the previous September, not long after she had discovered the truth about the Lupins. Carrie found Cleo amusing, for she too believed in the existence of magic, in fact Cleo was a self proclaimed witch. Everything that Cleo knew, or at least thought she knew, about magic was completely misguided, she spent hours reading things off of the Internet, reading silly books and watching the Wizard of Oz. In truth sometimes Cleo's silliness got on Carrie's nerves, but most of the time she had a good giggle about her, especially when she wrote to Teddy to tell him all about Cleo's wildly inaccurate theories.

Cleo may well have had an obsession comparable to Carrie's own, but the wannabe witch had one advantage that meant that she had never wound up being summoned to see the Headmistress.

Cleo seemed to have an off switch. She could concentrate at school without letting her mind wander.

Carrie wished she had an off switch too.

The short car journey back home was made in icy silence for a while as Carrie contemplated what her fate was going to be, what privileges her parents might revoke. They might ban her from watching television for a while, she mused, or stop giving her pocket money. She didn't particularly care about those sorts of things, not now that the summer had started and Teddy would be coming home from wizard school. What was the point of television when you could be playing exploding snap or chess with pieces that moved themselves? And who cared if you had any pocket money when your best friend would gladly buy you some sweets with his own?

But when her mother finally broke the silence, Carrie was utterly mortified to hear of her punishment.

"This is it, Caroline, it really is!" Mrs. Winters announced as they finally pulled into their driveway. "I just don't know what else to do with you, I thought after last time the school called us you would start trying harder, but no! No, you just aren't trying! Well this is it! This is the final straw! You're going to have to go to summer school!"

As the car came to a halt and Mr. Winters reached to pull the keys from the ignition, Carrie's mouth dropped wide open in horror.

"Summer school? But...but Mum, I can't...!"

"It's the only way you're going to catch up." Mrs. Winters insisted as she reached to throw open the car door. "Mrs. Basilton thinks it's a good idea, she says there will be classes starting next week..."

"But Teddy's coming home! Daddy, tell Mum...!"

As Mrs. Winters clambered out of the car and shut the door firmly behind her, Mr. Winters turned to offer his daughter another sad look.

"It won't be so bad, Carrie." he assured her as he pocketed the car keys. "And besides, school is very important."

Carrie slumped back in her seat miserably, clenching her teeth against a tantrum, only to rush to climb out of the car at the sound of her mother's voice outside calling:

"Good afternoon! Goodness, you haven't been waiting long, have you?"

"Not at all," a familiar voice replied, and as she slammed the car door shut Carrie turned to see Teddy's father stood upon her doorstep, a polite smile upon his lips. As Carrie hurried towards him, Remus Lupin caught sight of her and he offered her a little wave. Turning back to Mrs. Winters, he explained: "We're just off to pick Ted up from the station, I wondered if Carrie might like to come with us."

Despite her misery about her ruined summer holiday, Carrie's heart gave an excited leap and she bounded up the driveway towards the adults. For a moment she had quite forgotten that school was finally over and Teddy was due home within the hour.

"Yes please!" she cried as she came to a skidding halt at her neighbors side, grinning widely up at him, only for him to raise an eyebrow at her.

"Would you mind terribly?" he asked Carrie's mother, and the girl turned to look at her imploringly. "We should only be gone a short while."

Carrie wondered if, since she was so furious, Mrs. Winters might deny the request, but to her relief her mother was doing the same thing she always did when she spoke to her neighbors: she was being unnaturally cheery and polite.

"Of course she can go, dinner won't be until late, the twins are at football practice."

"Can't I have dinner at Teddy's?" Carrie asked before she could think better of it, and Mrs. Winters eyes widened, no doubt a little embarrassed at her daughter inviting herself round for dinner. Luckily for Carrie they were distracted by the sound of a door being pulled shut and somebody called:

"Remus? Harry's just called, he says we're all set for tonight!"

As Dora Lupin crunched her way across the gravel towards them, Carrie turned to wave at her and she greeted: "Wotcher, Carrie love. Are you coming with us?"

The witch came to a halt beside her husband, slipping a hand through the crook of his arm as she wished Carrie's parents a good afternoon. As usual, a tiny frown creased Mrs. Winters brow as she observed Dora's hair, today a deep shade of purple, before she smiled and returned the greeting.

"I suppose you better come tonight, Carrie." Remus told the child. "If you aren't at his welcome home party, Teddy won't think it much of a party at all."

"You're having a party?" Carrie asked excitedly as Mr. Winters murmured something about coffee and excused himself inside, and Dora proudly announced:

"Yep, I've even made a cake!"

"It was supposed to be a cake, at least..." Remus trailed off with poorly suppressed amusement as his wife slapped him rebukingly upon the arm.

"Shut up." she hissed, a little abashed and no doubt glad when Mrs. Winters changed the subject.

"I'm sure Carrie can come over for a few hours. It'll be nice to have a bit of fun before summer school starts, won't it Carrie?"

The excitement died on Carrie's face and she gave a half hearted nod.

"Summer school?" Upon seeing the look upon Carrie's face, Dora turned on her heel and hastily announced: "Well we best be going, we don't want to miss the train pulling in, do we?"

Once both Lupins had wished Mrs. Winters good afternoon once again, Carrie said a mumbled goodbye and hurried after them down the driveway and up the road.

"What's wrong with my cake?" Dora demanded as soon as they had rounded a corner, pulling her arm free from her husband with an accusing stare.

"Nothing."

"Liar."

"I mean...nothing if you don't mind a few egg shells..."

"You're a git, you know!"

"So you always tell me."

Despite their disagreement, Dora reached to slip her hand into his as they turned into the little alleyway that served as their designated Apparation point, free from the prying eyes of the local muggles.

"I'm sure Teddy's going to love it." Remus mused uncertainly, and at the mention

of her best friend again, Carrie couldn't help but smile.

At least we'll have the weekends, she thought as they came to a halt at the end of the alley. And there was nothing Carrie loved more than a party at the Lupins' house.


	2. Talk About Carrie

_Note: I am delighted to say that both Meet the Muggles and Meet the Lupins have been added to the community Leave Me In Awe...(and other unique stories)! Thank you very much to fireboltcrazed for adding them! This chapter is dedicated to you!_

_And thank you to everybody who reviewed the first chapter, it's so nice to know that you enjoyed the first story enough that you wanted to read the second! And of course to more unfamiliar faces – thank you for reading and reviewing too! _

_Part of this chapter does continue one major issue first brought up in Meet the Lupins...but with any luck it will be pretty self explanatory! It also sets up an issue that will be big in a later story...cookies for anybody who can guess what it is!_

_In case anybody wants to know, I have decided upon the following ages of the Potter/Weasley clan based on my poor mathematics skills and the information on the Harry Potter Wiki. I think I've done it wrong, but for the purposes of this story they are close enough! It is AU after all!_

_Teddy – 12, Victoire – 10, Dominique – 7, James and Louis – 5, Rose and Albus – 3, Hugo and Lily – 1/newborns. _

_Don't flame my failure at simple subtraction, I already know how bad it is! XD_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any profit from this piece of writing. However, Caroline "Carrie" Winters, Cleopatra "Cleo" Clancy and their families are my own creations. _

**2: Talk About Carrie**

Once they had reached King's Cross Station, Carrie, who was feeling somewhat sickly after experiencing the dizzying sensation of apparation, waited upon the edge of Platform Ten with Tonks whilst Remus went to fetch Teddy, since the muggle didn't feel up to trying her luck with the very solid looking barrier between Platforms Nine and Ten. She did, however, smile widely as she watched the wizard casually step straight through the brickwork.

"So," Tonks said as she reached to fiddle with the bottom button of her blouse absentmindedly. "Summer school, huh?"

Carrie folded her arms somewhat sulkily across her chest.

"I don't want to go." she mumbled as they watched a couple stride hand in hand towards the barrier, disappearing just as Remus had done a moment earlier.

Tonks frowned thoughtfully as a mother pushing a little girl in a pushchair passed them. The child twisted in her seat to stare in wonder at the witch's hair. Tonks grinned and waved at her.

"I went to a summer school of sorts when I was younger." she recalled, gazing returning to the barrier.

"How long for?"

"Three years. I didn't get Easter holidays or much at Christmas either."

Carrie turned to look at Tonks with wide, uncomprehending eyes.

"I think if my parents made me do that I'd run away from home!" she cried, and Tonks chuckled at her.

"I expect I probably would have too, but as it happens they were dead against me going at first. I applied for it myself."

"Why?"

"That's what you have to do to be an Auror. Three years of training." the Auror turned to fix Carrie with a stare. "And it was well worth it, wasn't it? Not only can I pay the bills every month, I can rescue my muggle neighbors from maniac dark wizard kidnappers! Pretty cool, isn't it?"

Carrie felt her cheeks redden a little at this mention of her escapades during the previous Christmas holiday, but as she always did when she recalled Remus and Tonks' rescue effort she found herself smiling.

"Remus didn't do three years of training though, did he?"

"Nah, the Auror Department wouldn't touch him with a ten foot broomstick. Doesn't matter though, smug gits like Remus don't need three years of training to be able to curse somebody into the middle of next week."

Carrie drew in a deep, excited breath at the sight of a black robed child stepping out of the barrier, only to exhale again when she realised it was a boy wearing a yellow striped Hufflepuff tie. As the boy's parents appeared just behind him, father pushing large trolly upon which sat a large trunk bearing the Hogwarts School crest, Carrie wondered aloud:

"I wonder who would win." When Tonks offered her a questioning glance she elaborated: "If you and Remus had a duel, who would win?"

"Me." Tonks answered without any hesitation whatsoever, chin jutting out in mock-arrogance.

"Why?" Carrie asked, turning back to her resisting the urge to giggle.

"Because I'm awesome." Tonks declared with a wink, only to frown a little as she added: "And because he wouldn't curse me even if I paid him to...ah, here they come!"

Carrie's head whipped back round to look at the barrier again, and sure enough she spotted Remus walking towards them, pushing a trolly complete with Hogwarts trunk and an owl in a cage in front of him. And beside him, hair an alarmingly bright shade of his favourite turquoise was...

"TEDDY!" Carrie made a beeline for her best friend, narrowly avoiding running into the back of an elderly man who was about to board the train that had pulled into Platform Ten.

After witnessing Carrie Winters sprinting towards him with her arms held wide on more than one occasion since he had met her the previous year, Teddy Lupin chose to stop walking and braced himself for impact. When she finally collided with him, throwing her arms around his neck, he still stumbled backwards a step.

"Hi Carrie!" he greeted with a wide smile, throwing his arms around her in turn, hugging her tightly, and once again her spirits were instantly lifted as he began to babble excitedly about the party that evening. They didn't stop discussing what stories they wanted to hear after dinner until they were on the Lupins' front doorstep, by which time Teddy had concluded that he wanted to hear "the one about Snape and the boggart", a story that Carrie had not heard before, despite having sat through the traditional story telling that usually occurred after dinner at these sorts of events on several occasions.

"I think we've done that story into the ground over the years, Ted." Tonks announced as she pushed the door open with her foot and she and Remus shuffled over the threshold, holding Teddy's trunk between them.

"If Victoire's coming we should have some stories about Hogwarts." Teddy announced as he and Carrie followed the two adults inside and he closed the door behind them. "Because she's going to be starting school in September."

"We'll have to wait and see." Remus said as he and Tonks dumped the trunk at the foot of the stairs. "Best worry about what we're going to eat first."

Teddy bounded down the hallway after his parents as they both headed for the kitchen, Carrie trailing along behind them.

"What are we having?" the turquoise haired boy asked excitedly as he skidded to a halt upon the kitchen tiles, and Tonks muttered:

"Don't look at me."

"Lasagna." Remus supplied as he set about ransacking the cupboards for the appropriate ingredients.

"Molly left a dish big enough to make food to feed half of Hogwarts on the counter over there." Tonks told him as she sat down at the kitchen table to examine some papers that had been left there. As Teddy went to scrutinize the chocolate cake that was set beside the cooker, the pink haired witch observed: "You've not declared your condition on here, you know love?"

"I've not finished filling it out yet." Remus told her as he set an onion down upon a chopping board and, with a neat flick of his wand, set a knife chopping it up into small, even pieces. Carrie's gaze instantly left the cake to stare at this little show of magic instead.

Back at the kitchen table, Tonks puffed her cheeks, frowning deeply.

"Maybe you should just leave it out." she mused, only for Remus to point out:

"You do realise how highly illegal that would be, don't you?"

"Well yeah, but..." Carrie watched her trail off into silence at the look that he shot her over his shoulder.

"You've been round at Molly's plotting again, haven't you?" he accused lightly as he went back to preparing dinner. "I really wish you wouldn't."

"I don't know what you mean." Tonks mumbled as Teddy turned to eye his parents warily.

"Here we go." he mumbled to Carrie, and the muggle wondered if they ought make a speedy exit.

"First it was redecorating the bedroom..."

"I hated that wallpaper."

"Then it was the gnomes in Molly's garden..."

"Arthur had a bad back."

"Then it was your mother's attic..."

"It needed sorting, there was a boggart in Dad's old trunk and you're good with them."

"Nobody's even wanted to go up there in at least five years!"

"Probably because of the boggart. I don't see why you're complaining, love, I figured you'd like to help out."

"Of course I don't mind...it's just...it's just I know why you're doing it."

"Shut up, Remus." Tonks said cheerily, tossing the papers back down onto the table as she rose to her feet, offering him the most endearing smile she could muster. "I'm going to go and get changed!" And with that, she made a hurried exit.

"You'd better take your trunk upstairs, Ted, unless you want James and Albus going down it." Remus reminded his son, frowning after his wife as Carrie watched the chopping board rise up into the air and tip the chopped ingredients into a saucepan.

"C'mon Carrie," Teddy mumbled, eying his father with a somewhat worried expression. "I'm never going to drag that thing upstairs on my own."

Some minutes later, as she and Teddy struggled with the hefty trunk, Carrie wondered if they would ever make it to the upstairs landing. As he strained to push the trunk up another step, Teddy grumbled:

"It's been almost two whole years now, you know."

As she gritted her teeth a little and tugged with all her might, Carrie said:

"It's dreadful, Ted. But I'm sure he'll get a job soon enough."

"That's what you told me six months ago." Teddy muttered as at last they finally managed to bypass the final step. "Why they don't just accept it I don't know. Dad's never going to get a job."

"At least your mum is keeping him busy." Carrie reasoned as they dragged trunk across the landing and into Teddy's bedroom.

"Yeah...but he's getting irritable about it again. He says he doesn't need her trying to entertain him, he's not a child." Teddy let go of his end of the trunk and collapsed down upon his bed with a sigh. "He did get an interview the other week, though."

"Really?"

"Yeah...but they'd misread the application form and when they realised their mistake they told him to leave."

Carrie eyed her socks with a sigh, glad when Teddy decided to change the subject.

"There's a Quidditch match on next week." he recalled brightly, eyes upon the magically moving poster upon his wall, from which his Quidditch team of choice waved at him enthusiastically from their brooms. "I should ask Mum if you could come and watch it with us."

Carrie opened her mouth to announce that she thought that was a fantastic idea, only to promptly close it again when she remembered that she would be unable to attend.

"I can't come." she informed her best friend dejectedly. "I have to go to summer school."

Teddy rolled onto his side so that he could fix her with a bemused look.

"Summer...school...?" he repeated somewhat dumbly, as if he had never heard of such a thing in his whole entire life. "What's that?"

Carrie sat down atop the trunk, eyebrows raised.

"Well it's lessons you go to during the summer, obviously..." she explained patiently, though it was difficult not to sound patronizing.

"Well obviously!" Teddy echoed rather impatiently, rolling his eyes in exasperation. "What I mean is what sort of lessons?"

"Just normal lessons...English, Maths, Science."

"But you do those at school anyway. Why would you want to do them during the holidays too?"

"I don't want to do them Ted, the Headmistress says I have to." Carrie pursed her lips together, vaguely irritated at him playing dumb, until she noticed the neat little frown that was upon his forehead as he stared past her head at the opposite wall, chewing thoughtfully upon a fingernail.

She could practically hear the cogs inside his mind turning, and it was at that moment that Carrie Winters realised something:

Teddy Lupin was plotting something.

The boy rolled back onto his back, staring up at the ceiling as his hooked his finger inside his mouth, pulling it free again with a loud pop!

"Is that what you have to do at Oakhurst Manor then?" he asked her. "Go to school every summer?"

"No, it's only because my parents are sending me. You don't have to be at Oakhurst to go to their summer school either, Cleo's sister Bowie says they get kids from Eddington High going there too."

"Hmm." Teddy mused, and Carrie felt herself itching ask what he was thinking, only for his mother's voice to disturb their conversation.

"Remus?" Tonks' voice called, and the children heard her footsteps upon the landing. Remus' reply from downstairs was much too muffled to make out. "Where's my perfume gone?"

"Bugger..." Teddy muttered guiltily, reaching to cover his face with his hands, just as Remus' voice sounded from the bottom of the stairs.

"I have no idea what you've done with it." he called, and Carrie heard stomping footsteps as Tonks passed the doorway to Teddy's room, coming to a halt atop the staircase.

"I haven't done anything with it!" the witch complained, and her hands balled into fists when her husband informed her:

"Well I haven't borrowed it."

Carrie bit her lip as she watched Teddy's mother turn on her heel, eyes coming to rest upon the boy's bedroom door.

"Did you do something?" the muggle hissed in her friend's direction, but he merely mumbled:

"Bugger, bugger, bugger..."

"Ted?" As his mother flung his bedroom door open wide, Teddy rolled onto his side to stare at the wall. "Have you seen my perfume?"

"Have I seen it?" Teddy attempted to clarify, removing his hands from his face and reaching to hug his legs to his chest.

"That's what I said." Tonks said impatiently as she eyed the back of his head rather accusingly.

"No, I haven't seen it."

There was a long pause, and Carrie watched her friend's hold upon his legs tighten worriedly when he realised that the conversation was not over.

"But...?" Tonks prompted, folding her arms firmly across her chest, and there was another long pause before Teddy mumbled:

"But...I might've...smelt it somewhere..."

"Where?"

"I'm not really sure, Mum..."

"Theodore!"

"In the bathroom."

The final syllable had barely left his lips before she had turned and marched out of the door. Teddy hastily sat up, frowning deeply.

"Ginny's going to kill me now." he complained, and Carrie was about to ask what Ginny Potter had to do with Tonks' missing perfume when a bloodcurdling shriek sounded from the family's bathroom.

"MERLIN'S BALLS!"

"Yep," Teddy mumbled, reaching to sweep the hair from his eyes. "I'm a goner. Come on, let's get out of here before she starts spitting fire. That perfume cost her half the family savings..."

Carrie got hurriedly to her feet and the two children made a run for the stairs.

At the bottom, they found a certain werewolf leant against the bannister, shaking with silent laughter.

"Why are you laughing?" Teddy hissed furiously, eyes wide in horror. "Do you have any idea what she'll do to you if she sees you laughing at her?"

"I'm not sure I can help it." Remus whispered, clutching the bannister with both hands as he doubled over with laughter. At the sound of Tonks stomping towards the stairs, Teddy reached to grab hold of Carrie's arm, dragging her towards the kitchen.

"Nice knowing you, Dad!" the boy called over his shoulder as he led a retreat down the hallway. Once in the kitchen, he pulled the door firmly closed behind them.

"What was that all about?" Carrie asked, finally feeling it safe enough to giggle a little herself.

"Dad was watching James and Al this morning when Mum was at work, and James poured Mum's perfume down the toilet." Teddy explained, grinning widely. "Ginny told Dad she'd replace it before Mum found out, only Dad couldn't remember what type it was, so she owled me whilst I was on the train...she's going to kill me for letting Mum find out!"

Despite her giggling, Carrie shook her head.

"That James Potter's a menace!" she declared, and Teddy sniggered.

"You can say that again," he said, offering her a raised eyebrow. "That's why you're here, Carrie. I need you to save me from my cousins."

Luckily for Carrie not all of Teddy's cousins were quite as hyperactive and troublesome as James Potter. That evening, along with the Potters and their three children, Ron and Hermione Weasley came with their daughter Rose and baby son Hugo. Some ten minutes into dinner, an apologetic Bill Weasley arrived, wife and three children in tow.

"Louis couldn't find his shoes." he had explained, a little exasperated as the child in question stood, teddy bear clutched in both hands, seemingly oblivious to the disruption he had caused.

Carrie had never met Bill's children before, though she didn't take a terrible amount of notice of the rather introverted Louis, though she supposed she liked him better than his cousin James, and Dominique was sat at the other end of the magically lengthened table, so Carrie barely glanced at her for most of the evening.

Carrie saw an awful lot of Victoire Weasley, however.

She didn't like her.

For the first half an hour after Victoire had sat down at Teddy's other side, Carrie tried to tell herself that she was being silly, childish, pathetic. After all, she had had Teddy to herself for quite some time that day and there was absolutely no reason why she should feel jealous if he wanted to chat to his cousin for a little while.

Or a long while.

_He hasn't spoken a word to me in at least ten minutes, and before that he said pass the apple juice._

Carrie leant back in her chair so that she could get a better look at the girl who seemed to have captured Teddy's undivided attention, and promptly decided that she wasn't kidding. She didn't like her.

Besides, ten year old little girls weren't supposed to look so beautiful.

At such a thought, Carrie made herself blush and she hurriedly reached to busy herself with a carton of orange juice.

_Stop it_, she told herself firmly as she fumbled with the carton lid, _stop being silly...you don't even_ _care about anything like that..._

The lid came loose from the top of the carton and, before she could get a proper hold on it, fell to the floor by her feet. At the sound of the fallen object, Teddy halted mid sentence before turning and stooping to retrieve it. Smiling broadly at the muggle as he reached to replace the lid, he told Victoire:

"Carrie could play Gobstones for England, she's amazing at it!"

Victoire looked undoubtedly surprised to hear this fact, and Carrie couldn't help but grin rather smugly at her.

Carrie enjoyed Harry's recollection of the "Snape Boggart Incident" a great deal after dinner in the crowded living room, despite James' loud interruptions and baby Lily choosing to burst into somewhat hysterical tears when the story reached it's hilarious climax, (Carrie suspected this had something to do with James pulling his little sister's rattle out of her hand whilst she was midway through playing with it). Her enjoyment of the evening was somewhat ruined, however, when she went to fetch herself a glass of lemonade from the kitchen, only to halt just outside of the door when she heard a voice from within say:

"I think we need to talk."

Carrie froze, glass in hand as she recalled that Teddy's parents had excused themselves into the kitchen to make a start on the washing up, and, recalling how much trouble one could get in for eavesdropping, she promptly told herself to turn around and return to the living room. That was until she heard Remus murmur:

"I don't."

"About Carrie." Tonks' voice elaborated, and the werewolf said:

"Carrie? Oh...right, Carrie..."

"Yes, Remus. Shockingly enough the world doesn't revolve around you and your mood swings."

"You're still angry about the perfume."

"No, I'm still angry that you're still angry about me asking you to put up some wallpaper."

There was a long pause as Carrie shuffled a little closer to the door, before Remus cleared his throat and said:

"About Carrie, then."

"You heard about summer school, didn't you?"

"I did. It's not good, is it?"

"No, it's not. She's wasting her life away...what are we going to do about it?"

Carrie heard the clinking of cutlery before a drawer slid shut.

"I don't think there is anything to be done about it, Dora...she's not our daughter..."

"No, but...but don't you think we should do something? I mean...this is rather our fault, isn't it?"

"I confess I do feel...responsible, yes..."

There was another pause and Carrie bit her lip in anticipation of what was to come next.

"I think you should talk to her about it." Tonks decided, only for Remus to give a rather strained laugh and ask:

"And say what? Snap out of it Carrie, you're not one of us, stop daydreaming otherwise and get on with your own life?"

"No! Of course you shouldn't bloody say that!"

"Exactly, Dora. That's the whole problem isn't it? Over the past year she's become one of us. But she's one of them first. I don't know what's to be done about her, but Merlin knows somebody needs to do something. Talking to her clearly doesn't work, her parents must have talked to her until they were blue in the face."

"If she's so intent on being around magic perhaps us talking to her will do more good. We understand a whole lot more about this than her parents do, don't we? They just think she's being lazy, caught up in fairy tales. Talk to her, won't you, love? I tried earlier but it wasn't any use, she was only interested in magic again."

As Remus mumbled reluctant consent, Carrie felt her face warming in embarrassment that they were so aware of what was going on in her life, of how preoccupied she was with them. And almost as soon as the embarrassment came it was joined by a deep sense of apprehension. What would Remus say to her? What were they going to do? What if they told her to stop visiting so often? What if they didn't want her to visit at all?

Carrie continued to wonder what if for the rest of the evening, and those two little words kept her awake in her bed long into the night. When the morning came she bathed and dressed slowly, in no usual rush to go and knock upon their door, for she found herself quite afraid that if she were to do so she might come a step closer to losing her links to the magical world all together.


	3. Teddy's Plan

_Note: I apologize for the lack of updates, I'm afraid at the moment I am very busy with university work! Indeed, it would appear that I have no life outside of uni at the moment! I have, however, just completed my first project, and in celebration of this I am giving myself the evening off to make a start on this new chapter! _

_Thank you very much to those of you kind enough to leave reviews, I'm so glad you are enjoying the story! _

_I have a new poll up regarding this 'ficverse, so for those of you who haven't already, go and take a peak if you have a spare moment! _

_Anybody who spots the bombshell that is approaching in this story from miles off gets metaphorical cookies with chocolate chips!_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any profit from this piece of writing. However, Caroline "Carrie" Winters, Cleopatra "Cleo" Clancy and their families do belong to me._

**3: Teddy's Plan**

It was the Friday before Carrie Winters was due to start summer school when her breakfast was interrupted by a knock on the front door.

When sent to see who was there, Carrie opened the door to discover a certain Teddy Lupin stood upon her doorstep, a familiar, thoughtful little frown upon his brow.

"Hi Ted," she greeted, reaching to dust toast crumbs from her fingers upon the front of her jeans, and the young wizard's frown deepened as he announced:

"I need to use your terraphome."

There was a sizable pause as Carrie mirrored his frown, before she asked:

"My what?"

"Your terraphome." Teddy insisted, nodding his head with certainty. "And I need you to find out something on the Internet for me."

It was then that something inside Carrie's head clicked and she did a very poor job at not sniggering at him.

"It's called a telephone, Ted." she said as she stepped aside to let him enter, and the turquoise haired boy made a beeline for the study.

"I know," he mumbled distractedly over his shoulder. "That's what I said. We have to hurry up, Dad thinks I'm tidying my bedroom."

Carrie pushed the front door closed and hurried after him into the study, to find him examining the telephone's buttons with a frown.

"What does this one do?" he asked as she came to stand beside him, thumb hovering over a small red button upon the handset. Carrie was quick to snatch the handset from him and return it to the safety of its cradle.

"Don't...! Leave it, Ted, I'll show you how it works in a second. What do you need the Internet for?"

Teddy sat himself determinedly in the swivel chair before the computer and stared at the blank screen. With a small sigh, Carrie reached to turn the monitor on.

"I need a terraphome number."

"Telephone, Ted."

"A telephone number."

As she reached for the mouse and clicked upon Internet Explorer, her friend watching her every move as if attempting to commit them to memory, Carrie asked:

"Who do you want to call?"

"I want to call Oakhurst Manor." Teddy supplied, and Carrie paused, midway through pulling the keyboard closer so that she could type in a web address.

"You want to phone my school?" she said, eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Yep."

"Why...?"

"Because!" Teddy threw his hands up impatiently, glancing over at the doorway as if he was worried somebody was going to overhear them. "That's what you said your mum did the other day when she needed those forms!"

When Carrie simply stared at him questioningly, Teddy let out a loud sigh, only for a broad grin to break out across his face.

"I have a plan!" he announced proudly, eyes twinkling in a distinctly excited manner. When Carrie merely continued to stare, the boy sat up straight in his seat and proclaimed: "We are going to go to summer school together!"

There was a brief pause as Carrie took a moment to make sure he was being entirely serious, before she burst out laughing, failing to stop when his face visibly fell.

"Why are you laughing?"

Carrie felt somewhat guilty at this question, for he sounded genuinely disappointed at her reaction, but she could not seem to smother her giggles.

"But Teddy," she managed to chuckle, "you can't go to summer school..."

"Why not?"

"Because...well...it's for muggles, obviously..."

"So? I can act like a muggle, can't I?"

When Carrie's gaze came to rest upon his vibrant hair, she almost started to laugh again.

"But you've never been to muggle school, Ted! You haven't even been to primary school..."

"Dad home schooled me. He taught me to read, write, do maths, and I used to do geography with this big map he used to put on the wall, and sometimes we did history too..."

"Not muggle history, I bet! And even if you did...you've been at a wizard school for the past year, not a muggle one! You'll be a whole year behind everybody else at least!"

Apparently, this did not concern Teddy in the slightest.

"I thought that was the whole point of summer school," he said, leaning back in the chair and pushing off with his foot so that he spun around a couple of times, arms flung out as if he were on a roller-coaster. "You go there to catch up on what you've missed."

"Well yes, but not when you've missed EIGHT years of muggle education! And why would you want to bother anyway? You're a wizard, it would be completely pointless..."

"I bet if I went I could be the only second year ever to ace a NEWT level Muggle Studies exam." Teddy mused brightly, and Carrie was not sure what bemused her most: the fact that studying muggles was an actual school subject, or the fact that Teddy seemed to think that summer school was some sort of adventure.

"What do your mum and dad say about this?" she asked as Teddy stopped spinning and pulled himself closer to the desk.

The young wizard rolled his eyes at her as he reached to push the keyboard closer towards her.

"Well obviously I haven't told them about it yet." he said, turning his attention back to the screen meaningfully. "But I'm sure they'll be fine with it. All they have to do is sign the forms..."

After insisting on calling Oakhurst on his behalf, because she was worried that no amount of prompting would persuade Teddy that there was no need to shout down the phone, Carrie accompanied him up to the school to collect the appropriate forms. By the time they had arrived there Carrie had decided that no matter how silly Teddy's plan was, it really did sound like fun and she was glad that summer school might just turn out to be bearable after all. They walked home together and, despite feeling a little apprehensive, Carrie followed Teddy through the Lupins' front door, grinning broadly as the boy marched purposefully towards the kitchen. No matter how worried she was about what Remus might have to say to her, there was no chance that Carrie was going to miss the conversation that was about to follow.

The two children found Remus sat at the kitchen table, head buried in the morning's Daily Prophet.

"Daaaaaaad!" Teddy called loudly as he bounded into the room, skidding to a halt beside the table and narrowly avoiding sending the werewolf's mug of coffee flying from the tabletop.

"It's before noon, Theodore." Remus reminded his son soberly. "Use your morning voice."

"Dad, LOOK!" Teddy reached to pull the newspaper down from his father's face, waving the forms around excitedly.

Remus reluctantly put the newspaper down upon the table and leant back in his chair.

"Oh Merlin..." Carrie heard him breath as the forms were set down in front of him. "What is it this time?"

It was at that moment that there came the distinct whooshing sound of somebody exiting the floo in the living room, and the children both turned just in time to see Tonks come striding out into the hallway. Spotting the trio through the open kitchen door, the Auror hurried into the room, hastily dusting the soot from her scarlet robes.

"Remus love?" she called as she swept across the room towards her husband, who had just reached for his mug of coffee. "Have you seen my purse? I've only gone and forgotten where I put it and you remember what happened last time I tried summoning it...bloody coins all over the place..."

"Beside the toaster." the werewolf supplied, and she turned to spot the offending article, throwing her hands up in exasperation as she went to retrieve it.

"Why in Merlin's name did I leave it there?" she grumbled, snatching it up and shoving it into her pocket. On her way back to the door she paused at Remus' side, reaching to slide an arm around his shoulders. "Thanks!" she murmured as she stooped to press a lingering kiss upon his lips, mumbling: "Mmm...coffee..."

Before he could protest Remus found the mug plucked from his grasp and she took a generous gulp before setting it down upon the table.

"What's that?" she asked, gesturing to the Oakhurst forms and ignoring the vaguely incredulous expression that dawned upon his face.

"They're from Oakhurst Manor!" Teddy announced excitedly as both of his parents looked down at the papers. "I want to go to summer school with Carrie!"

To her son's clear annoyance, Tonks failed to suppress a snigger.

"That sounds...interesting, Ted." she told him cheerily, leaning to press another kiss to Remus' head with a murmured: "Have fun!"

Remus visibly grimaced as she straightened up and headed back towards the living room, calling a farewell over her shoulder. Teddy scowled at her back until she was out of sight before turning back to look at his father expectantly. Remus stared in bewilderment at Teddy as the boy bounced up and down upon his toes excitedly. "Let me get this straight," the werewolf said slowly with a frown. "You want me to send you to...muggle summer school...?"

"Yes!" Teddy declared, folding his arms determinedly across his chest.

Remus frowned down at the forms, reaching to scratch his head in bemusement.

"And...you think this is a good idea because...?"

"Because it'll be fun!" Teddy cried impatiently, expression distinctly moody at his father's lack of enthusiasm.

The werewolf leaned forward, elbows coming to rest upon the table as he fixed his son with a firm look.

"Teddy, I can't possibly send you to summer school, we'd have to cancel the family holiday..."

"I don't want to go on holiday! I want to go to summer school!"

"It's not all about you, Ted, your mother has been looking forward to this for months."

"Then you can go without me! I can stay at Harry's or Gran's!"

"I don't think so. They've got enough to be getting on with without having you to stay." Remus reached to retrieve the Daily Prophet, only to pause when Teddy gave his foot a furious stamp. When the boy opened his mouth to protest some more, his father told him: "You can't go to summer school, Theodore. You've never been to muggle school before, you'll be completely behind and your mother and I are not going to dump you on relatives whilst we disappear off to get a sun tan."

Teddy gave an unimpressed snort.

"Nobody gets a sun tan in Wales, Dad!" he grumbled, and for some reason Remus seemed to find this highly amusing. Irritated by his father's broad smile, Teddy gave his foot another stamp, hair reddening considerably.

"You never let me do ANYTHING!" he cried, hands balling into fists, and Remus offered him a raised eyebrow.

"Is that so?"

"Yes! You're BORING!"

"As interesting an assessment of my character that is, Theodore, the fact of the matter is if I were to fill out these forms your mother would probably curse me into the middle of next week for ruining the first family holiday we've had in years. You are not going to summer school. End of discussion."

Carrie was pretty sure that she had never seen Teddy look more furious about anything for as long as she had known him, and she suppressed a gasp when the scarlet-haired boy let out a small shriek of fury before declaring:

"I HATE you!" And with that, he turned on his heel and stalked out of the kitchen and towards the stairs, feet thumping moodily as he went.

Then, with a small shake of his head, Remus Lupin simply went back to reading his newspaper.

Carrie hovered beside the fridge, lips pursed together as she attempted to decide what to do next: follow Teddy up to his room and attempt to comfort him, or make some sort of effort to persuade Remus to change his mind. She had a feeling that there was not a lot she could say that would make much of a difference, but despite this she found herself shuffling forwards a few steps and mumbling:

"I think Ted was really excited about summer school...he...he really, really wants to go."

She watched Teddy's father set the newspaper down once again and reach for the mug of now luke warm coffee.

"I know he does." he said, pausing to pass a hand across the top of the mug, causing steam to suddenly begin to rise from the liquid. "It was a wonderful idea. But unfortunately we can't always have what we want, Carrie."

Carrie went and sat upon the chair opposite him, eying him curiously as she asked:

"You think it was a wonderful idea?"

"Of course I do. The more we can learn about life the better, Carrie. It is important that we understand the world around us. How else are we to fit in? If Teddy wants to go and immerse himself in the muggle world for a few weeks...well I think that's fantastic." Remus sighed as he looked down at the forms again. "But I'm not sure Dora would be too keen on the idea. She's been planning the holiday for months." He leant across the table a little, voice dropping to a whisper as he told her: "We're not really going to Wales. That's just what she told Ted to keep it a surprise."

"Where are you really going, then?" Carrie whispered back, but before he could reply there once again came the sound of whooshing emerald flames in the living room...

And then both Remus and Carrie flinched at the distinct sound of somebody vomiting.

Remus abandoned his coffee and Carrie got to her feet and hurried after him towards the sound of the noise. The muggle stopped in the doorway of the living room and watched as Remus drew his wand and banished the vomit from the carpet just before his wife's feet.

Carrie could not help but notice that, as she stepped to throw her arms around the werewolf, Tonks looked distinctly paler than she had done a mere ten minutes previously when she had left the kitchen, despite the soot upon her cheeks.

"What happened?" the child heard Remus ask softly, and to Carrie's surprise the witch told him:

"I threw up on Harry's shoes."

And then she burst into tears.

It was quite possibly one of the strangest scenes that Carrie Winters had ever witnessed. And that was saying quite a lot, indeed over the past few months she had witnessed all manner of weird and wonderful things. Truth be told, she herself would often cry terribly if she were to be sick, of course it was not a pleasant experience, but she could barely imagine Tonks acting in such a way. Especially when she had been so cheery mere minutes beforehand. She certainly hadn't looked ill when she had stolen Remus' coffee.

"Come and sit down, I'm sure you'll feel better soon." Remus murmured as the pair began a somewhat precarious shuffle towards the sofa, only for Tonks to hiss:

"Exactly, Remus! I'll feel better later! Exactly!"

"Shh."

"I want you to go to the apothecary."

"If that's what you want, I'll go after lunch..."

"No, Remus. I want you to go now!"

"Shh, you don't have to shout at me..."

"Yes I do! Because you're not bloody listening to me!"

Carrie made a hasty retreat towards the stairs and took them two at a time, glad to find sanctuary in Teddy's room.

That was until she remembered that he was sulking.

He lay spread eagle upon his bed, face buried in his pillow, perfectly still as if he were sleeping.

Carrie reached to close the door to muffle the shouting from downstairs before resuming her perch upon his school trunk. There was a long silence before Teddy's curiosity got the better of him and he turned his head to gaze at her through rather puffy eyes.

"What are they yelling about this time?" he croaked, voice hoarse from his tantrum.

"Your mum puked on Harry's shoes." Carrie told him, and he looked as though he wanted to be amused but couldn't quite manage it. "She wants your dad to go to the apothecary or something."

"I don't think they have a potion that cures insanity." Teddy mused glumly. At Carrie's raised eyebrow he told her: "She really has gone quite mad these past few days, my mum. One second she's on top of the world, the next she's turned into a total psycho...she screams louder than a banshee."

It was then that they heard Remus calling to Teddy from the bottom of the stairs, and the boy reluctantly dragged himself up from the bed and went to the bedroom door.

"What?" he called irritably, sighing heavily when his father called back.

"Come downstairs!"

Grumbling inaudibly under his breath, Teddy headed for the stairs, Carrie just behind him. They found Remus waiting for them by the front door, busy squinting at the contents of his wallet.

"What is it?" Teddy asked again, arms folded firmly across his chest, only to look surprised when a ten pound note was waved under his nose.

"Go...somewhere." the werewolf instructed rather vaguely as Teddy accepted the money with a frown. "I don't want to see you back until lunchtime."

"Why?"

"Because it will be beneficial to your health. If you stay here your mother might just burst your eardrums. Now go on, off you go!"

"What's wrong with her now?"

"Merlin knows, Ted, just go...go to the sweet shop or something."

"Victoire said she might have rabies. You know, because it makes you go crazy or something..."

"I'm not entirely sure your mother would appreciate that theory, Theodore. Hurry up then..."

And with that, both Teddy and Carrie found themselves being ushered out of the door.


	4. Windows and Weirdos

_Note: I'm going to up the rating of this fic to a T, just to be on the safe side._

_Thanks to everybody who reviewed! You make me smile! =)_

_Since Kuroida is in between stories...I think I might just be winning the war! insert evil cackle here!_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any profit from this piece of writing. I do, however, own Carrie Winters, Cleo Clancy and their families._

**4: Windows and Weirdos**

Carrie had been sure that the drama would have all been over by the time she and Teddy had returned from their leisurely stroll into town to buy some sweets and poke their heads into the pet shop to see the rabbits that were advertised in the window. But they had barely stepped across the threshold when Remus met them in hallway and thrust a couple of sheets of paper into Teddy's hands.

"I need you to take these to Oakhurst, Ted." the werewolf announced as the two children found themselves being herded out of the door yet again. "And by the time you get back your gran will be here. She's going to give you some lunch."

And with that, the door was shut firmly behind them.

There was a long pause as Teddy unfolded the papers and stared down at them, eyes growing steadily wider as the seconds ticked by. And then quite suddenly he let out an earsplitting whoop of triumph, throwing his arms up into the air and launching himself excitedly off of the front step.

"I KNEW IT!" he cried as he landed upon the gravel with a crunch and spun around to grin at his best friend somewhat alarmingly. "I knew he'd give in if I sulked long enough! Look!"

Carrie found the papers waved under her nose and once she had taken hold of them Teddy began a noisy lap of triumph around the driveway.

_Oakhurst Manor School Summer Classes _

_Application for Entry_

_Name of Child: Theodore Lupin_

_Previous School Year Group: 7_

_Secondary School: Eddington High School_

Carrie stared down at remainder of the form, smiling vaguely at the Parent/Guardian Contact Details section, in which Remus had claimed that the family's telephone was currently not in working order, but they could no doubt get hold of him through Carrie's parents next door.

And yet, despite feeling the distinct swell of happiness at the realization that Teddy would be accompanying her to summer school, the muggle felt no real desire to join him in his noisy celebrations.

Because Carrie Winters was feeling worried.

She still babbled excitedly with Teddy all the way to Oakhurst and back, discussing which subjects were most boring and what Teddy would make of the teachers and the other children. Indeed her worry was quite lost until Teddy's grandmother opened the door to them and Carrie found herself saying goodbye to her friend as he was whisked away towards the floo.

Carrie stood alone on the Lupins' driveway for some long minutes, chewing upon a nail as she stared at their front door.

Whatever was going on in that house, she mused with a frown, it must be pretty big if it were change Remus' mind about summer school so quickly. The muggle found herself with a sudden desire to know what was happening, for she could not bear to think of her perfect little magical world being thrown into chaos or turmoil once again, like it had last Christmas.

Last Christmas. Carrie could remember it as clear as if it had been yesterday, and she knew she should know better than to stick her nose into the affairs of wizards.

And yet, when she spotted the open window to the left of the front door, she could not seem to help but go and peer inside.

There used to be net curtains up, she recalled, until Titus Goyle had blasted them to smithereens, and yet despite this reminder of the Christmas Incident, Carrie pressed her nose up against the cool glass.

Both Remus and Tonks were sat upon the sofa, Carrie could see the top of their heads, hers rested upon his shoulder as they both stared at a little trio of glass bottles that were sat in a row upon the coffee table, each filled with a bright red liquid. There was silence for a long moment until Carrie heard Tonks say:

"I think...I think we should do another one."

"Why?" Remus asked quietly, reaching to put an arm around her, and she sounded hopeful when she mumbled:

"Well they might be wrong..."

"Dora..."

"...we need to be certain, you know?"

"Dora, listen..."

"Because I'm not going through all of this just to find out they were wrong..."

"Dora! They're not wrong! You know they're not wrong, they're never wrong!" As his voice rose in frustration, Carrie watched the witch once again dissolve into tears. The werewolf reached to pass a hand wearily over his eyes.

"Shhh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to shout at you, you don't need to cry."

"Yes I do! Yes I bloody do, this is the most bloody awful thing that's ever happened... you should be bloody crying too! Why aren't you crying?"

"Because I cried last time, which means it's your turn."

Tonks let out a somewhat choked giggle, only to cry harder than ever, face buried in his shoulder.

"Now your mother's coming to watch Ted whilst we're in France we'll have plenty of time on our own to sort this out..."

"Sort it out? How the bloody hell do you propose we do that? What is there to be sorted, Remus? I'm bloody pregnant!"

Back outside, Carrie narrowly avoided headbutting the window as she jumped in surprise. She felt a great surge of excitement assaulting her chest, only for it to falter somewhat when Remus calmly explained:

"Well we have to decide whether we want to...to keep it or not."

"Oh Merlin, don't!" Tonks complained, hands grasping hold of the front of his shirt in agitation. "Just...just don't...! I can't think about it...I just...can't!"

His arm around her tightened comfortingly as he murmured:

"I know darling. That's why Ted's going off to summer school and we're going to go on holiday. Just the two of us, all on our own. No family, no friends, no work, no distractions, so we can think nice and clearly and decide what we're going to do."

Tonks let out a heavy sigh, though Carrie was unsure as to if it was one of relief, and shifted closer to his side, reaching to take hold of his hand in both of hers.

"I need to stop shouting at you." she mumbled rather guiltily.

"That might be nice." he admitted as they both stared at the glass bottles accusingly. There was silence for a long while, punctured only by Tonks' occasional sniff, before the witch said thoughtfully:

"D'you know what, Remus?"

"Mm?"

"If we had this baby, and if we were muggles, you'd be drawing an old age pension before it left secondary school."

Remus' gaze drifted to the ceiling and Carrie shuffled backwards a little for fear she might be spotted as he muttered rather glumly:

"Yes...that had crossed my mind."

Tonks let out another sigh, seemingly oblivious to her husband's tone as she gave a soft whistle and said:

"Wow."

Over jam sandwiches and orange juice for lunch, Carrie concluded that she would not tell Teddy what she had overheard his parents saying, for it was none of her business and really she ought not have been listening in the first place. She was just sucking the remnants of the jam from her fingers, whilst wondering if she would ever have such a revelation before she went and eavesdropped on people, when the phone in the study began to ring and, having picked it up, her brother Timothy called:

"Carrie? That weirdo's on the phone again!"

Carrie hastily wiped her fingers upon a discarded tea towel and hurried to retrieve the phone.

Timothy was busy playing a game on the computer, however he was not too busy to spend a few irritating moments holding the phone just out of Carrie's reach, laughing at her attempts to snatch it from him. When she finally managed to get hold of the object, having resorted to digging her nails into her brother's arm to force him to give it up, Carrie stuck her tongue out at him before putting the phone to her ear and greeting:

"Hi Cleo!"

Cleopatra Clancy sounded more than a little irritated.

"How come when Timothy said weirdo you instantly assumed it was me?" she grumbled accusingly. "It could have been Teddy, he's way weirder than me I can tell you!"

Carrie sucked in a breath, considering what to say, before simply pretending that Cleo hadn't said anything.

"Are you having a good summer?" she asked pleasantly, only for Cleo to give a snort and say:

"It's hardly been a summer yet, Carrie, we've only been out of school a few days."

"Well have you had a good few days then?" Carrie asked, rolling her eyes and turning her back on Timothy who was waving his hands about and whispering:

"Careful, Carrie! She might put a curse on you!"

"They've been okay." Cleo decided, before asking: "Is that idiot brother of yours doing that silly thing with his hands?"

"No..." Carrie mumbled, glancing over her shoulder and suppressing a giggle.

"Yeah right. Well tell him and Thomas that I want my DVDs back."

"Cleo wants her DVDs back, Tim." Carrie informed the boy sat behind the desk, just as his twin appeared in the doorway and asked:

"Is that Cleo on the phone?"

"Yes, Tom." Carrie confirmed reluctantly, sighed as Thomas immediately began to mirror Timothy's hand waving, waggling his fingers and mumbling gibberish.

"Tell Thomas to piss off." Cleo instructed, no doubt guessing what was going on, and Carrie obediently told the second twin:

"Cleo says piss off, Tom."

As both twins sniggered, Carrie hurriedly slipped through the doorway and out into the peace and quiet of the hallway.

"They've gone now." she told Cleo, and the wannabe witch said:

"Cool. So what are you doing? I'm bored."

"I just ate lunch." Carrie informed her, chest swelling with excitement as she said: "And guess what?"

"What?"

"Ted's going to summer school with me!"

There was a sizable pause before Cleo asked:

"You're taking the mickey, aren't you?"

"No. We just handed the forms in this morning!"

Cleo seemed to take a while to think this statement over before she concluded:

"Oh dear."

"What do you mean "oh dear?" Carrie asked indigently as she sat down at the bottom of the stairs and set about picking at a stray thread on her jeans.

"Nothing, nothing. It's just...well, you know..."

"I don't think I do, Cleo."

"Well...well he's a bit...different, isn't he?"

Carrie had to stuff the sleeve of her cardigan into her mouth and bite down upon it to stop herself from laughing. There were a great number of words that one could use to describe Teddy Lupin. Different was only the tip of the iceberg...

"I don't see anything wrong with him."

"I know you don't, Carrie, but...well..."

"You hardly even know him, Cleo."

"When I was at his house that time, waiting for you and his parents to come back, he asked me to explain what the purpose of a microwave oven was."

Carrie wasn't sure whether to laugh or flinch.

"So?"

"So...that's weird! Who doesn't know what a microwave does? And who calls it a microwave oven these days? I think he might be a bit simple or something..."

"He isn't simple he's just..." Carrie attempted to think of a word and regretted it instantly when she settled on: "inquisitive. And besides...he doesn't have a microwave at home." She heard Cleo snigger, but was glad when her friend decided to change the subject.

"Do you want to come round and bake some cookies? Bowie says she'll help us tidy up if we give her some."

Carrie always enjoyed going to Cleo's house, especially when not all was well in the Lupin household. The banter between Cleo and her older sister Bowie always cheered Carrie up and being at home was so boring that Carrie would chose to go pretty much anywhere.

That afternoon Bowie did more than just help the two younger girls tidy up, she helped them make the cookie dough too, threatening to crack an egg over Cleo's head when the younger sister teased that she would have to be careful not to break a nail.

"You'd never guess what Barbie Girl here was doing half the morning, Carrie." Cleo said as she set about mixing together the ingredients.

As she wobbled precariously upon her tiptoes, peering into a cupboard full of baking trays, Bowie demanded:

"Shut it, squirt."

"I'm surprised you and Teddy didn't see her when you went up to school earlier." Cleo went on as if the blonde haired girl had not spoken. "She and her mate, Cindy Doll, spent about two hours at the gates trying to get a glimpse of the new caretaker. They FANCY him."

"Kayleigh fancies him, not me!" Bowie insisted as she finally managed to coax a tray off of the top shelf. "And we weren't there for hours, it was like...half an hour."

"I can't believe you fancy a caretaker!" Cleo cried, ducking when Bowie pretended to hit her on the head with the sheet of metal. "He empties bins for a living..."

"You go down bins all the time." the older sister pointed out with a scowl. "I would've thought it would've been you who liked him." When Cleo pretended to vomit into the mixing bowl, Bowie reached to pull it away with her, saying: "That's totally gross!"

As the wooden spoon was snatched from her hand, Cleo protested:

"You don't even know what his name is! If you're going to be some sort of crazy stalker you should at least know what he name is."

"His name is Mr. Avery."

"Well that's not much good is it? You can't be a proper stalker if you don't know his first name..."

"It's Richard."

The amusement died on Cleo's face and she fixed her sister with a very serious look as she said:

"That's bloody creepy."

When she left to go home some hour later, a lunchbox full of cookies under one arm, Carrie was feeling cheerful to say the least. She thought of giving some of the cookies to Teddy, which reminded her just how excited she was about the coming Monday and the start of summer school.

I must remember to make sure he has his hair a sensible colour, she mused, and make sure it stays that way...

When she reached home she went to knock on the Lupins' door to offer them the cookies, but it soon became apparent that nobody was home.

Or at least nobody who was willing to answer the door, Carrie realised when she thought she saw a curtain twitch in the corner of her eye.

Once inside her own home, she had little opportunity to give the situation next door much thought because her mother insisted that she help with the washing up, and so began a long lecture about how important it would be for Carrie to try her very hardest at summer school.

Carrie decided not to tell her mother that Teddy would be attending the classes too, for it was bad enough that Mrs. Winters thought Cleo was a poor influence without her deciding that Teddy was one too.

Carrie waited for the weekend to pass with increasing impatience. Despite feeling worried about what was going on next door, she saw little of Teddy those two days, for on Saturday her grandparents came to visit for the day and on Sunday she accompanied her brothers and her father to the cinema some half an hour drive away in the nearby town of Ambleside. She went to bed early on both evenings, desperate for the time to pass.

But then, at long last, Carrie Winters found herself being awoken in her bed from sunlight streaming through her window, and the calendar on her wall informed her that at long last it was Monday morning.

She was going to go to summer school.

And Teddy Lupin was going to go with her.


	5. Summer School

_Note: I'm sorry for the lack of updates...I hope this was worth the wait!_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any profit from this piece of writing. I do however own Carrie, Cleo and their families._

**5: Summer School**

"Paper?"

"Yep."

"Pencils?"

"Yep."

"Pens?"

"Yep."

"Muggle pens, not quills..."

"Yes Mum!"

"Lunch money?"

"M-um! I can pack my own school bag, you know!"

"Fine, fine...but you can't go out looking like that."

"Mum!"

"Tell him, Remus."

"Your mother's right, Theodore, you can't go to school looking like that..."

"Why not?"

"Show me a muggle who was born with green hair, Ted, I bet you can't..."

"I could have dyed it!"

"Which is against Oakhurst's rules. Now change it or you're not going anywhere. And you can't take Exploding Snap cards with you, go and put them back in your room."

From her position just inside the Lupins' hallway, Carrie Winters watched Teddy Lupin sigh heavily and stomp his way back up the stairs, muttering:

"I wasn't going to let anybody else play with them!"

His parents, both stood like some sort of human barricade in front of the stairs to stop his escape, exchanged a glance.

"This is such a bad idea." Carrie heard Tonks mumble under her breath. "When we get called in to explain why our son's pockets are stuffed full of jumping chocolate frogs or...or why he thinks World War Two occurred in the bloody 90s...I'm going to tell them its all your doing, Remus. You signed the form, you can take the blame."

"I'm sure Carrie will keep an eye on him." Remus assured her as Teddy, hair now a sandy brown, bounded back down the stairs. Carrie couldn't help but feel that the werewolf did not sound entirely confident.

After a few minutes of the adults threatening to cancel the family trip to watch Quidditch at the weekend if Teddy's behavior was nothing less than perfect, and a few more minutes in which Tonks reminded Remus that if anything went wrong she would hold him personally responsible, Carrie and Teddy were finally permitted to leave the house and make their way to school.

"Please try and avoid any drama, Ted." Remus told his son as they stepped back outside, one last attempt to make an impression upon the boy. "Your mother really doesn't need it just now." At the questioning look he was offered he hastily added: "We're about to go on holiday, after all."

And with that, the door was hastily shut behind them.

Feeling very much responsible for her best friend, Carrie suddenly found that Teddy's parents' apprehension about him going to summer school seemed to be rubbing off on her. As she watched him walk along beside her, whistling cheerily and kicking at a stray pebble upon the pavement, she could not help but ask:

"You do know World War Two isn't the same as the Second Wizarding War, don't you Ted?"

She found herself biting her lip when Teddy failed to reply, instead asking:

"Is it true muggle teachers are only called Professor if they teach science?"

"No..." she mumbled as they crossed one road and turned into the next. "Actually...none of the teachers are called Professor. We just call them Miss and Sir."

"Oh, right." Teddy turned to offer her a broad and somewhat alarming grin as he commented: "Good thing I've got you with me, isn't it Carrie? Else I might say something stupid!"

"Yeah..." Carrie mumbled as he went back to whistling a tune that several weeks previously she had heard Tonks singing along to whilst listening to the wireless. By the time they had reached the main road and were approaching the school gates, Teddy had replaced his whistling with the actual words and he had barely finished the first verse before Carrie reached to tug on his arm.

"Ted?"

"Hmm?"

"Ted, try...try not to sing the Weird Sisters when we're at school, okay? Because, you know, the other kids might think...that's weird."

"Oh yeah...yeah, 'course."

As they passed through the gates and began to make their way up the wide driveway towards the school's main entrance, Carrie's gaze came to rest upon a small cluster of older girls who were lingering at the side of the pathway, all staring across the lawn. Turning to see what they were looking at, she found herself looking at a broad shouldered young man with ragged blonde hair, who busy pushing a lawn mower back and forth across the grass. This, she supposed, was the caretaker that Cleo and Bowie had been bickering about.

They mounted the steps up to the main doors and as she reached to push them open Carrie felt a blast of cool air from the air conditioning unit above the door. She led the way towards the reception desk, only to realise after a few steps that Teddy wasn't following her. When she turned to find the young wizard gazing up at the air-exhaling vents with mild interest, she hurried to grab hold of him by the arm and give it a firm tug.

"Come on, Ted!"

"How does that work?"

"I don't know, it's just a machine...bit like central heating. You have that at home, don't you?"

"No, Dad casts heating charms..."

"Shhh!" They had reached the desk, and to Carrie's relief the receptionist appeared far too busy filing her nails to have paid them much attention. Only when the children's combined shadow fell across her lap did the woman finally look up, expression distinctly bored.

"Year group?" she requested, setting down the nail file and reaching for the papers set down in front of her.

"Seven." Carrie supplied, resisting the urge to snigger at the grin that appeared on Teddy's face as the woman extracted a couple of timetables from the pile and offered them to the duo.

"Names?"

"Caroline Winters."

"And...?"

When Teddy failed to reply, Carrie added:

"And Theodore Lupin."

As the receptionist squinted down at the long list of names, pen tapping impatiently against the desk as she searched, Carrie glanced sideways to see that Teddy was suddenly too busy staring back at the entrance to pay much attention. Following his gaze, Carrie found herself looking at a trio of students shuffling reluctantly through the doors. It was a moment too late that she realised quite who she was looking at.

"What are you staring at, Winters?"

At the sight of Carl Thompson flanked by Dermot Simmons and Talia Bridesworth, Carrie was quick to reach for Teddy's arm again and give it a firm tug towards the doors leading further into the school, mumbling a vague thank you to the receptionist as they went.

"Who were they?" Teddy asked as they finally escaped through the doors, the girls still dragging the wizard along behind her.

"That was Carl Thompson and his...friends. Duuur-mot Simmons and Talia Never-A-Bride-sworth, as Cleo likes to call them." Carrie told him, smiling vaguely at the jokes. "They're in my...our...class."

"You don't like them?"

"Obviously not, Ted. They're bullies."

At Teddy's deep frown, Carrie gave a soft snort as she asked:

"What? You thought we didn't have bullies in muggle schools?"

The boy's expression became a mixture of embarrassment and sheer astonishment. Carrie glimpsed it before coming to a halt and looking down searchingly at their timetable.

"Well...not exactly...it's just...well..."

Having identified that their first lesson would be English in Room 25, Carrie offered her best friend a questioning look.

"It's just...?" she prompted when he simply stared at her, lips pursed together thoughtfully.

"It's just you never said there were bullies in your class before." Teddy finally explained, tone bordering on despairing.

Carrie opened her mouth to speculate that there were probably bullies of one form or another in everybody's class, and so perhaps he ought not look so utterly mortified, but she found that quite suddenly she didn't want to say a single word. For mortified was precisely the sort of word that she would use to describe Teddy's reaction to this insignificant revelation, not to mention a distinct hint of anger...

"We've got English first." Carrie decided to tell him instead, offering him a bright smile. And with that she turned and lead the way towards their classroom, trying best not to feel worried about the look that had been upon his face. She was relieved to hear his bounding footsteps as he hurried to keep up with her, with a bizarrely enthusiastic:

"Cool, English!"

Carrie thought English class with Miss Small went smoothly enough: she and Teddy sat at a desk beside the window and they both listened intently, except for when the teacher was busy writing upon the whiteboard with her squeaky marker pen. Teddy would lean back in his chair and yawn widely, commenting a little too loudly to Carrie that at Hogwarts teachers didn't take so long to write on the board. Carrie interrupted him before he could explain exactly why, for she was pretty sure that magic was involved in one way or another, and if she herself was not warning enough, the look that Miss Small shot the young wizard as she turned back to the class did the trick perfectly.

It seemed consequently inevitable for Teddy to be first to be summoned to the front of the class and offered the marker pen, with instructions to act as scribe as the rest of the class set about listing exemplar sentences containing similes.

Miss Small was impressed by his immaculate handwriting, though a little bemused by his own addition to the list: The branches clawed at the air like a grindylow's fingers.

"I'm afraid I've never heard of a grindylow before, Theodore." she had said as he stood beside the board, oblivious to the countless eyes that were upon him.

"You haven't?" At his genuine surprise, Carrie leant forward to rest her forehead upon her desk with an inward groan.

"No, I haven't." Miss Small said, and Carrie bit her lip in anticipation of what her friend might say next.

Please don't say it's a water demon with really long fingers, please don't say there's one sitting in a tank in your house, next to the cages where you keep your pet owls...

Carrie dared to peek up at the front of the room, and watched with bated breath as Teddy frowned in consideration before offering Miss Small that trademark charming smile that always alarmed his friend because it made him look so much like his father. Especially with hair like that...

"Well," the boy said, turning to look at his handiwork with a critical eye. "I don't suppose it's a very useful simile then, is it Miss Small? If you don't know what a grindylow looks like." His face brightened a little as he observed: "But there's some personification there too, I suppose. So even if you don't know about grindylows, you could probably guess that I meant the branches look rather like...like..." He held up his hands, spreading his fingers wide and swiping them around in front of him in demonstration.

The entire class sniggered at him, but Miss Small nodded her head thoughtfully and said:

"Well you better leave it up there and go and sit down then, Theodore."

And then Teddy offered her the pen back with the same endearing smile before heading back to his seat. As he pulled his chair in he leant towards Carrie and grumbled:

"I thought they'd know what a grindylow was!"

"Why on earth would they know that, Ted?" Carrie hissed back as Miss Small told them to copy down their homework.

Reaching for his pen and printing English Homework atop a fresh sheet of paper, Teddy reasoned:

"Well they've heard of dragons and pixies, haven't they?"

Once again, Carrie groaned.

Teddy's grasp of English was by far superior to his knowledge of Renewable and Non-Renewable Energy Resources in Geography.

Carrie observed his bemusement as Mr. Holmes wrote the title upon the board, before the boy turned to look at her and whispered:

"What happened to naming places on a map?"

Carrie gave a shrug as she extracted a pen from her fluffy turquoise pencil case.

"There's more to Geography than staring at maps all day." she informed the wizard as Mr. Holmes began to take the register. "That's what Mr. Holmes always says."

Teddy leant back in his chair, expression distinctly sulky.

"That's not what Dad said..." he complained, pausing to answer to his name. "He used to make me stare at maps for HOURS!"

"That sounds unbelievably dull." Carrie admitted as she copied down the title into her exercise book.

"He said it would be important for me when I was older." Teddy recalled, sounding distinctly disbelieving. "For when I learn to apparate."

Carrie opened her mouth to tell him that she supposed that would make a lot of sense, but at that moment she felt something hitting the back of her head before landing on the floor with a soft rustle. She kept her gaze firmly upon the whiteboard, but beside her Teddy stooped to retrieve the paper ball from the floor.

"Leave it, Ted." Carrie hissed as she heard the distinct sound of sniggering behind them. But Teddy ignored her, flattening out the paper and looking down at the scrawled words upon the paper.

_Caroline, oh Caroline,_

_What's she dreaming of this time?_

_Her head is full of fluff and air,_

_There's absolutely nothing there,_

_Be careful not to get too close_

_The dead flies and brain cells are real gross._

Carrie winced at the sound of the legs of Teddy's chair squeaking as he turned abruptly to look at the trio sat behind them.

"I think you're in the wrong class." the young wizard informed Carl Thompson and his friends icily. "This is Geography, not English. You should go back to Miss Small's class, though. Because your poetry sucks."

"Ted!" Carrie muttered, kicking him under the table to try and get his attention, just as Carl Thompson said:

"Reckon you could do better, do you? I was thinking of adding a line about her big nose, but I thought that would be going a bit off topic."

As Dermot and Talia sniggered, Teddy drew breath to retort, only for Mr. Holmes to call for all eyes to the front of the class.

The rest of Geography passed in a distinctly uneventful manner, though Carrie got the distinct impression that Teddy was not paying all that much attention to Mr. Holmes' explanation of wind turbines, nor what he had to say about biomass. On the fifth occasion that Teddy turned to shoot the bullies behind them a distinctly dangerous glare, somewhat similar to that of his mother when she had read in the Daily Prophet that Titus Goyle was appealing for parole from Azkaban, Carrie could not help but wonder if Remus' pleading for a lack of drama had fallen on deaf ears.


	6. The Fight

_Note: I have no idea how I've found the time to write this...still, here it is! I hope you like it! _

_Thank you very much to those who reviewed the last chapter. And also thank you to the reviewers of A Piece of Cake! XD_

_And I hope you are impressed by the very imaginative title of this chapter...not! _

_Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any profit from this piece of writing._

**6: The Fight**

Carrie's fears were finally confirmed that lunchtime, which found her lining up with Teddy at the cafeteria ready to buy themselves something to eat. Carrie was midway through telling Teddy to avoid the cheese and pickle sandwiches at all costs, for she was not entirely sure how the rubbery substance inside could be defined as "cheese", when she suddenly felt a sharp pain between her shoulder blades as something struck her hard enough to make her stumble a little. She spun around just in time to see a Year Eight boy strolling away towards the drinks machines in the corner, shooting him a glare before turning her attention back to Teddy.

"That wasn't very nice." Teddy observed, staring after the boy too, only for both he and Carrie to be distracted by the distinct sound of sniggering.

Catching sight of Carl Thompson and his friends at a nearby table, Carrie shot them a withering look before turning her attention back to her lunch. She was just reaching for a ham and mustard roll when yet again a complete stranger, this time a tall girl with short, spiky hair, thumped her upon the back as she passed.

"Watch it!" Teddy called after the girl, much to the amusement of the bullies at the table, before snatching up an egg and cress sandwich and asking: "Are all muggle children so utterly revolting, or are the ones here just special in some way?"

It was not until they were making their way over to a table of their own that Carrie realised the answer to Teddy's question, having just been punched for the third time in as many minutes.

Most muggle children were utterly revolting. Especially when somebody had stuck a "Punch Me" sign to the back of your t shirt.

"Here," Teddy said, balancing his lunch tray precariously in one hand so that he could reach and pull the offending sheet of paper from Carrie's back, before eying it distastefully.

"Doesn't take a second guess to know who's responsible." Carrie commented with a raised eyebrow, before continuing her way towards their table of choice.

It was not until she had set her tray down upon the table, halfway through telling Teddy that from what he had told her about Hogwarts, bullies in muggle schools really did seem to lack creativity compared to their wizard counterparts, when Carrie realised that she was talking to herself.

Teddy had not been following her.

Carrie's gaze darted around the room searchingly, and when she spotted her best friend stood before Carl Thompson's table, his tray set down so that he could fold his arms firmly across his chest, she found herself muttering:

"Oh Merlin..."

She skidded to a halt behind Teddy just in time to hear him inquire:

"How would you like it if I were to just come up and punch you?"

Silence descended upon the canteen as all eyes turned to stare at the drama that was about to unfold, and Carrie winced in anticipation.

Sorry Remus, she thought to herself, biting her lip worriedly. I did my best...

Carl Thompson rose abruptly from his chair, an amused smirk upon his lips. Leaning towards Teddy across the table, the muggle boy scoffed:

"I'd like to see you try!" Leaning forward a little further, Carrie heard him hiss: "But I bet you're chicken!"

And naturally, the young Gryffindor retorted:

"I'm certainly not!"

"Ted!" Carrie muttered, reaching to tug upon the wizard's sleeve. "Ted, remember what your Dad said? He said no drama, remember? You heard him..."

"Worried about what Daddy'll say, are you?" Carl sniggered, and before she could think better of it, Carrie snapped:

"Oh shut it, Thompson!"

"Shut it yourself, Winters! Nobody's asking you! Your head's too empty to have any sort of opinion, anyway..."

And at that moment, Carl Thompson's rude remark was cut short with a gasp, because Teddy Lupin had taken a step backwards before launching himself across the table and, grasping the other boy by the shoulders, knocked him backwards off his chair. The two boys landed upon the floor with an almighty crash as food and trays flew from the table, eliciting a small shriek of surprise from Talia Bridesworth. Carrie might have giggled at the other girl had she not been preoccupied with the sheer astonishment that her mild mannered, well behaved best friend had just initiated a brawl in the middle of her school cafeteria

As Carl Thompson winced at Teddy's fist pummeling him in the stomach, before managing to throw the smaller boy off of him and pin him to the floor, Carrie's first thought was that Teddy was probably going to die one way or another.

Because if Carl Thompson didn't kill him, she was pretty certain that Remus would.

Her second thought was that she should do something...anything to stop the madness as somewhere to her left a voice bellowed:

"FIGHT!"

Before she could think of rushing over to grab hold of Teddy's arm and drag him away, Carrie found the struggle abruptly obscured from view as a horde of children abandoned their food to descend upon the middle of the room, ready to cheer the two boys on.

"TED!" Carrie shouted in a vain attempt to be heard over the cheering, struggling to push her way through the solid wall of Year Nines that had sprung up in front of her, and as she wormed her way through the crowd she winced at the sound of the mass intake of breath as one boy managed to strike the other in the face. The final two Year Eights who stood between her and the middle of the mayhem caused Carrie yet more trouble, for they seemed determined not to let her past. Gritting her teeth, Carrie attempted to shoulder her way past them, only for them to finally step aside, and before she could get a proper look at Carl and Teddy, Carrie found herself tripping forwards into the fray, landing atop the two scrambling boys with a groan.

Just in time for a man's voice to demand:

"That will do!"

Silence descended upon the gathered crowd like a lead balloon, and Carrie struggled to untangle herself from the two boys to look up towards the source of the voice.

To her surprise she found herself looking up at the caretaker, Mr. Avery.

"Get up." the blonde haired man instructed, and the three children were quick to do as he asked, his icy gaze upon them made Carrie quite forget that he was not a teacher. "Head's office. Right now. All three of you."

"Carrie hasn't anything to do with it." Teddy spoke up, rather bravely his best friend felt, but the adult merely turned on his heel to lead the way towards the door, muttering:

"Be quiet, Lupin."

"How does he know your name?" Carrie whispered as they reluctantly fell into step behind him, but Teddy seemed not to care. His sandy brown hair, Carrie noticed, was looking distinctly redder than it had done some minutes previously, and he appeared to have a split lip. So dejected was his expression that for a horrible while Carrie was quite worried that he might start crying.

Carl Thompson looked decidedly unscathed.

And smug.

Carrie shot him the biggest scowl she could muster, but he merely sniggered at her.

Sitting outside of Mrs. Basilton's office waiting for the Headmistress to finish phoning her parents yet again was a most unpleasant and terribly silent affair. Not only did Carrie feel utterly horrified at the thought of the conversation that was probably being conducted behind the infamous closed door, but she also felt downright shocked.

What on earth had come over Teddy to make him act in such a way? She had always thought there wasn't a violent bone in his body. She was quite keen to ask her best friend what he had been thinking when he had decided to pick a fight with the biggest, toughest boy in her year, to ask him if he had momentarily lost his sanity, but Teddy's grim expression had not altered from the moment they had left the cafeteria, she did not want to disturb him.

She sat and counted bricks upon the wall opposite instead.

It was an excruciating long wait. Carrie supposed after her mother's long chat with the Headmistress she would probably have to go and knock on the Lupins' door to pass on news the of Teddy's disgrace. And then of course one of Teddy's parents would have to come and collect him, march him home in shame until the school could decide whether or not to allow him back the following day. Carrie couldn't help but expect bad news on that front. The very thought made her feel crushed.

After what seemed like forever the three children found themselves summoned into the office, where they stood before the desk, lat least two of them looking suitably remorseful.

"I have phoned your mother, Carl." Mrs. Basilton announced, as if this fact alone ought shock the boy in question into regret, but he had the audacity to shrug carelessly. "And your mother, Caroline."

Despite having done nothing wrong, Carrie hung her head in shame, only to look up suddenly when once again Teddy insisted:

"Carrie had nothing to do with it, Mrs. Basilton."

"Mrs. Winters has assured me that she will contact your father imminently, Theodore." Mrs. Basilton said, the look she shot Teddy being somewhat poisonous. "And whilst we wait for them to arrive I think it best we all have a little talk, don't you?"

Carrie was pretty certain that this was a rhetorical question, but Carl folded his arms moodily across his chest and muttered:

"I don't."

"I've had quite enough of your rudeness, Carl!" the Headmistress snapped, and the boy frowned deeply and pointed out:

"But I've only opened my mouth once since I came in here..."

Mrs. Basilton pressed her lips into a thin line before reaching to pick up a Biro and scribble something on a piece of paper.

"I can see we shall have plenty to discuss once your mother arrives." she observed darkly as she set the pen down again, before telling him: "Kindly wait outside."

Once the door had swung shut behind Carl Thompson, the Headmistress folded her hands purposefully upon the desk in front of her and peered at Teddy through her spectacles with scrutinizing eyes. There was a long pause before she finally asked:

"What school do you usually attend, Theodore?"

Teddy took long enough to reply that for a moment Carrie was worried that he might have forgotten what Remus had written on the form, she was relieved when he finally said:

"Eddington High School, Mrs. Basilton."

"I see." Carrie was astonished to find that the iron grey haired woman seemed able to narrow her eyes more than ever as she asked: "And it customary for boys to attack one another during their lunch breaks at Eddington, I wonder?"

Judging from what she had spied of the students of Eddington High School, which was located on the other side of town, opposite the park where her brothers liked to play football, Carrie would probably answer this question in the positive. She was pretty sure their school motto, once translated from ancient Greek, had something to do with remembering to carry your knife on you when you went out shop lifting. She thought it was quite misguided, and yet very sensible at the same time, for Teddy to hang his head and mumble:

"No, Mrs. Basilton."

"Well then, Theodore, perhaps it might interest you to hear that we do not behave in such a disgraceful manner here at Oakhurst, either."

"Of course, Mrs. Basilton." Teddy straightened up in order to look the Headmistress directly in the eye as he solemnly declared: "I'm terribly sorry for causing so much trouble. I can assure you that it will never happen again."

If she had closed her eyes Carrie could have believed it was his father stood beside her rather than Teddy himself, and at this thought she found a smile tugging at her lips.

"What precisely do you find amusing, Caroline?"

At the sound of her name, Carrie found herself jumping a little, eyes immediately upon the floor.

"Nothing, Mrs. Basilton."

"I wonder, Mrs. Basilton," Teddy asked, sounding suitably meek, "if you might consider sending Carrie back to class? You see she hadn't anything to do with what happened. She was merely an innocent bystander."

The innocent bystander wanted to smile again. What child said Innocent Bystander? Only Teddy, she was sure.

Yet more smile-worthy still was the fact that the Lupin charm appeared to be working its magic upon Oakhurst's formidable Headmistress.

"Yes...well..." Mrs. Basilton reached to straighten the spectacles that had slid down the bridge of her nose. "Perhaps...perhaps you should wait outside whilst I talk to Mr. Thompson."

Carl Thompson was nowhere to be seen when Carrie and Teddy finally shuffled out of the office. In fact at first glance the corridor appeared to be completely deserted...

"What's he doing?" Teddy whispered, and Carrie spun around to follow his gaze down the corridor towards the staff room.

The caretaker Richard Avery was on his hands and knees, peering into a storage cupboard halfway down the corridor. At first glance Carrie would suppose he was simply searching for something inside...

But did he really need to crouch so low that his face was almost pressed to the floor?

At that precise moment the children heard the sound of the double doors leading to the stairwell being pushed open behind them, and the caretaker, startled by the noise, leapt back to his feet. Carrie watched him turn to look down the corridor, before his eyes widened considerably. He turned on his heel and fled towards the staff room.

"Weird." Teddy muttered as both he and Carrie turned to see who was coming through the doors, and the sight that met him made the young wizard audibly gulp.

Maybe it was because the approach of the full moon, now mere hours away, had left his usually bright eyes dark and sunken, or maybe it was because his lips were pressed so firmly together that they were close to disappearing from his pale face altogether. Or perhaps it was because his mother-in-law was midway through telling him, no doubt not for the first time since they had left home, _I told you so_, which was making one of his hands curl into a worryingly firm fist as he walked in a distinctly slow and stiff manner towards the children.

Whatever the reason, Carrie Winters was certain that Remus Lupin had never looked so incandescently furious in living memory.

The muggle thought it wise that his son chose not to say anything. Even when the werewolf came to a halt in front of him and asked:

"_What were you thinking_?"

Carrie took a small step backwards, leaning against the wall as Andromeda Tonks said:

"Goodness, Remus, look at his lip?"

Her son-in-law shot her an uncharacteristically withering look before reaching to put a firm hand upon Teddy's shoulder and leading him up the corridor a few steps.

"Fighting...!" Carrie heard Remus hiss furiously as the pair came to a halt, his hands upon each of Teddy's shoulders, forcing the boy to stare miserably up at his father. "I warn you to behave yourself and not get into any trouble, and the next thing I hear you've been fighting! In the middle of the school canteen! You've been here all of half a day!"

Teddy shifted his feet uncomfortably, still mute.

"It's full moon tonight!" Remus went on, battling to keep his voice hushed. "I'm ill! Your mother's ill! Your grandmother has canceled lunch with her friends to apparate me over here! All because you couldn't manage to behave yourself and keep your head down for one single day! And not just because you threw a couple of paper planes! No, you had to start a full blown fight! Merlin knows we thought better of you, Theodore!"

Teddy mumbled something in the direction of his shoes that Carrie didn't quite catch. Whatever it was seemed only to make the situation worse, because Remus cried:

"I don't care what they did to Carrie! She didn't attempt to crack their skulls on the canteen tiles, did she?"

"Well no," Teddy spoke up, fingers fiddling nervously with the hem of his tshirt. "But..."

"But you did? Well enlighten me then, Ted! What makes you so special?"

"I...I just...well..."

"Well?"

"Well..." Teddy trailed off, eyes again on the floor. "Nothing, Dad." he mumbled at last, shoving his hands into the pockets of his trousers. "I'm not special at all. I'm sorry."

Remus heaved a heavy sigh, reaching to run a weary hand through his hair.

"Merlin knows what the Headmistress must think." he breathed, suddenly despairing rather than angry. "It'll be a miracle if she has you back tomorrow..."

"What does that matter?" Andromeda asked, one aristocratic eyebrow arching as both father and son turned to look at her. "Surely you won't let him come back...?"

"If the school will have him, Teddy can come back." Remus told her, though he sounded distinctly uncertain, just as he had done that morning stood in his hallway.

The look on Andromeda's face suggested that she thought he was somewhat lacking in sanity, but rather than argue she simply said:

"It's your funeral," before gesturing to the row of plastic chairs outside of the office. "Remus, sit down before you fall down."

As the werewolf obediently stumbled over to a chair, the witch folded her arms across her chest and muttered: "You're ridiculous."

"As I've said," Remus told her, apparently picking up a conversation from earlier, "I was busy, I forgot to go to Diagon Alley, it was an easy enough mistake..."

"It's ridiculous." Andromeda insisted, sweeping past Carrie and Teddy to take a seat beside him. "Nymphadora isn't an invalid, she needs to pull herself together and you need to start looking after yourself as well as her! Running around after her instead of remembering to buy pain potions! Honestly! I've never heard of something so daft! I'm going to have a word with that daughter of mine, she needs to get her act together!"

"Please don't," Remus mumbled, leaning back until his head was resting against the wall. "She's never forgotten the full moon before, she'd only feel terribly guilty..."

"Good!" Andromeda cried, and Carrie was sure she was about to launch into some sort of lecture, except at that moment the office door opened and Mrs. Basilton's head poked out of the door.

"I see Mr. Thompson decided not to hang around." she observed, shaking her head disapprovingly until she spotted the two adults to her left. "Ah..." she said, fixing a pleasant smile upon her face as Remus hastily straightened up. "Mr. Lupin, I presume?"

As they watched Remus disappear into the office a moment later, Teddy shuffled back until he was stood at Carrie's side.

"I hope I don't get expelled." he mumbled, fingers tapping apprehensively upon the wall behind him.

Pursing her lips together in consideration, Carrie crossed her fingers behind her back.

"Me too." she mumbled back.


	7. The Chilli Powder Incident of 1996

_Note: It's been ages! I'm very sorry! I hope you enjoy this rather random and slightly fluffy addition to this story! No, I don't know how this is relevant to the plot either!_

_Expect more Teddy-Muggle Interaction in the next chapter..._

_Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, now am I making any profit from this piece of writing._

**7: The Chilli Powder Incident of 1996**

Carrie and Teddy both stared with hopeful eyes as the office door opened and Remus stepped out into the corridor.

The wizard's meeting with the Headmistress of Oakhurst Manor School had not lasted as long as Carrie had anticipated. The muggle could not decide whether this was a good or bad sign. She crossed a few more fingers just in case.

"Well...?" Teddy asked, unable to stand waiting a moment longer, and Remus' gaze upon him was piercing as he informed the boy:

"You have one chance."

And those four words shattered the tense atmosphere like a hammer to glass as both Teddy and Carrie let out shouts of triumph, she bouncing up and down in excitement and he launching himself across the corridor to throw his arms around his father, shouting:

"You're AWESOME, Dad!"

"I think you'll find the correct word is diplomatic, Teddy." Andromeda pointed out as she rose from her chair. "You could probably learn a thing or two from your father in that respect."

"Go back to class." Remus instructed as Teddy finally released him. "We're going to talk about this when you get home."

"We've talked about it already..." Teddy mumbled, no doubt less than thrilled at the prospect, but he trailed off into silence at the look that Remus offered him, instead settling for: "Okay then Dad."

Having managed to miss Science entirely, Carrie and Teddy's only lesson that afternoon was History, which the young wizard was disappointed to find did not seem much more interesting than his own version of History lessons at Hogwarts. He was, however, excited at the homework that the class was set on Myths and Legends, because it would be an opportunity to do research on the Internet.

"You'll have to show me how to use that Google thingy." he commented brightly as he and Carrie finally stepped out of the school gates and set off towards home. Recalling Teddy's last encounter with her computer, Carrie suppressed a grimace.

When she got home that day, having said goodbye to Teddy at the foot of their driveways, Carrie found a glass of lemonade waiting for her upon the kitchen table, and she went to sit out on the patio, determined to enjoy the summer sun when she had the chance. It did not take the child long to notice movement in her neighbours' garden and, despite attempting as usual to reason with herself, Carrie failed to suppress her curiosity. She set down her glass of lemonade and went to squint through the gaps between the fence. She spied Tonks stood arranging a series of objects upon the garden table, Remus sat upon one of the chairs watching her with a frown.

"Sit forward." the witch instructed briskly as she extracted a large cushion from its position tucked under her arm. "If you insist on sitting out here you should at least try and make yourself vaguely comfortable." When the werewolf opened his mouth to protest, she insisted: "Don't say a word, love, I feel bad enough already without you being nice to me about it."

Remus paused, considering whether or not to argue with her, before obediently sitting forward to allow her to tuck the pillow behind his back. He watched her set about unwrapping the first in a mound of chocolate bars upon the table, before silence finally eluded him and he asked:

"Are we...anticipating a Dementer attack?"

His wife offered him an arched eyebrow.

"Energy levels." she informed him slowly, as if talking to a small child. "You look half dead already and it's not even getting dark."

"I'm not eating all of that!" Remus protested, sounding bordering on alarmed at the suggestion. "I'll throw up for sure!"

Carrie squinted to see Tonks pause in her meticulous snapping of chocolate pieces to fix the werewolf with a wide-eyed stare.

"Are you declining an offer of chocolate, Remus?" she asked in astonishment, and when he simply gave a small shrug she announced: "Well I've heard everything now!" Popping one square of chocolate into her mouth, the witch took a few steps towards her husband, stooping to stare into his eyes scrutinizingly. "I think this is serious. I'm going to have to take you to Mungo's."

Remus opened his mouth to reply, only to find a large piece of chocolate being practically shoved down his throat. As he struggled not to choke, the witch straightened up and triumphantly announced:

"Gotcha!" When he failed to look amused, chewing upon the sickly confectionary as if it were a lemon, she mused: "No good...?"

"No good." he confirmed a moment later once he was finished chewing, and she let out a heavy sigh and said:

"Well I suppose I'll have to eat it then. Black coffee do you instead, you think?"

Though he did not look terribly thrilled from what Carrie could see of his face, Remus consented nevertheless.

"That would be lovely." he mumbled as Tonks reached to wrap her arms around his neck, fingers raking absentmindedly at his hair. There was a long pause as his cheek came to rest against her arm, his eyes drifting closed before he asked: "When did you...notice?"

"When did I notice that I am in actual fact the worst wife on the planet?" the Auror confirmed with a small frown. "Well...possibly around the time I watched you attempt to run down the stairs to answer the front door whilst doing some sort of hunchback impression."

"Ah." he murmured, smiling faintly. "Yes, I did suspect that might've been the big clue."

"And of course I don't remember the last time you voluntarily asked Mum a personal favour. That was the biggest clue of all." Tonks' eyes widened quite suddenly as she asked: "Do you think we should tell her? You know...about the baby? Before she guesses?"

Drawing away from her so that he could lean back in his chair, Remus frowned thoughtfully.

"No..." he decided after a long pause as she reached to snatch up another square of chocolate. "I don't think we should tell her yet. Or anybody. Not until we've decided...you know..."

"Yeah...yeah, you're right." she chewed upon the chocolate rather thoughtfully, though seemingly came to no conclusion as to what to say next, so she turned and set about gathering up the remaining bars of chocolate. "Better hide these somewhere decent," she decided. "We don't want Ted getting hold of them. If I have my way he'll never eat another bar of chocolate for the rest of his life..."

"Only because you want to eat them all yourself." her husband pointed out, causing her to shoot him an astonished look.

"Excuse me?" she said incredulously, hugging the sugary loot to her chest. "Pot calling the kettle black at all, love?" Before he could answer she turned and made her way back inside, adding: "Get that coffee, shall I?"

"Is Teddy home yet?" Remus called after her, and from the kitchen Tonks announced:

"He's hiding in his bedroom!"

"Could you give him a shout for me?"

"Sure..." There was a sizable pause before Carrie heard the muffled sound of Tonks calling Teddy's name, and the muggle watched Remus reach to run a hand over his eyes with a deep sigh. It was not long before Teddy shuffled out onto the patio, looking distinctly reluctant to be there.

One of the garden chairs drew itself out from underneath the table, and Carrie smiled at the little show of magic before she heard Remus murmur:

"Sit down."

Teddy obediently went to sit beside his father, before gazing determinedly into his lap.

"Look at me, Ted." the werewolf instructed softly, and Carrie had to strain her ears to hear him. When Teddy merely shifted uncomfortably in his chair, Remus told him: "I'm not going to be angry with you. I just want you to tell me precisely why you got into a fight today."

"I already told you..." Teddy mumbled, drawing his feet up onto the chair and hugging his knees to his chest. "He was being rude about Carrie."

"And?"

"And...and that makes me angry."

"Because?"

"Because Carrie's my friend."

"Joshua is your friend too, isn't he? What about that letter you wrote home a few months ago? You said some of the Slytherins were being rude about Josh..."

"So?"

"So you didn't have to punch them in the face, did you?"

"No, of course not..."

"But why not? Joshua's your friend, Carrie's your friend, what's the difference?"

"I dunno, Dad..."

"Of course you do."

There was a long silence as Teddy scuffed his shoe against the concrete patio awkwardly, before admitting:

"She's a girl."

"Ah." Carrie saw a broad smile spread across Mr. Lupin's face as he said: "Chivalry isn't dead, I see!" The werewolf leant forward in his chair, and at his movement his son reluctantly met his gaze. "As wonderful as that is, Theodore, this isn't quite the Middle Ages. There are relatively few damsels in distress around for us to rescue, these days." Remus glanced back towards the kitchen window as he mused: "Some of them spend plenty of time being distressed, of course. But are they damsels?"

Carrie jumped at the distinct sound of smashing china from inside of the Lupins' house, followed promptly by Tonks' furious:

"Oh shit!"

"I have serious doubts." Remus concluded, as Teddy promptly dissolved into poorly suppressed laughter. It was some time before the child managed to ask:

"So what you're saying is...don't bother?"

"Merlin, no! Of course you bother. What I'm trying to point out, Teddy, is that when your mother and I take you to Diagon Alley at the weekend and some drunk staggers out of the Leaky Cauldron and makes some soft of offensive comment about your mother's choice of hair colour, I'm not going to turn around and curse him through the nearest shop window. Why? Because, to be frank, your mother could do a far better job of it than me and, more importantly, we don't do wands at dawn and all that anymore because it has a habit of getting us arrested or carted off to Mungo's. And after all that I would no doubt arrive home only for your mother to tell me that she thinks I acted like an idiot and that she can stand up for herself. She'd burn dinner on purpose and make me sleep on the sofa.

It makes no difference, Teddy, that Carrie is a girl. Surely your mother has taught you that much? I go off to fight, she stays home and watches the baby...sounded reasonable enough at the time but no, no she wouldn't have it, would she? Because we're all equal, we all fought at Hogwarts, men, women...boys and girls, for Merlin's sake! Because we all had the right to stand up for ourselves and what we believed in. I had no right to tell your mother that she couldn't fight. It's no different to what happened today. It was Carrie's problem, you had no right to assume that she could not deal with it as she saw fit. Which is a shame, she dealt with it far better than you did."

There was a long silence as Teddy absorbed this information before he asked:

"Then...how are you supposed to still bother?"

"It's all about being subtle." As he leant back in his chair again, the Marauder added: "Or...just not getting caught."

"Like...what?" Teddy asked, frowning deeply, and Remus puffed his cheeks in consideration, frowning too.

"Like pummeling them verbally and yet ever so politely so that it takes a few minutes for anybody to realise quite what you've done. Like simply cheering her up afterwards and making her see the funny side. Like telling her what you would do if you weren't quite so intent on being subtle..."

"Like spiking Snape's pumpkin juice with Dragon's Pride Chilli Powder." interjected a voice from the doorway, and both wizards turned to see Tonks stood watching them, arms crossed firmly across her chest.

"That wasn't me." Remus immediately insisted as Teddy turned back to stare at him with wide eyes. "I would never be that petty. Obviously, Sirius did it."

"Like blaming it on a dead man who can't claim otherwise." Tonks said, one dark eyebrow arching in distinct disbelief. As she turned to disappear back inside, her husband was unable to stop a small smile creeping onto his face as he whispered:

"Like lying through your teeth and feigning ignorance for the rest of your life."

Teddy did not stop laughing for a long moment, and there followed the inevitable pleading to hear the rest of the story.

"It was silly and childish." Remus insisted, battling against a grin. "And I should never have done it."

Carrie wondered why, if this was truly the case, he sounded so unashamedly proud of what he had done.

"Why did you do it?" Teddy asked excitedly, shifting impatiently in his chair. "Did Snape do something nasty?"

"Not...precisely..." Remus mumbled, suddenly far less amused, only for Tonks to call:

"Are you trying to DEFEND SNAPE, Remus?"

"He was a great man." Remus pointed out half-heartedly, only for his wife to declare:

"Yes, but he was also a vindictive little sh..."

"He made some rather rude insinuations about your mother's moral compass." The werewolf concluded hurriedly. "None of which deserved what I did to him. That's pretty much the end of the story..."

"Hardly, Dad!" Teddy complained, grinning widely. "Not only is that not the end, you've missed out half of the middle..."

"The details aren't really very important."

"I bet Mum'll tell me!"

"I very much doubt it, Theodore."

"Can't you at least give me a hint about what he said?"

Remus sighed, but consented to pursing his lips together thoughtfully before revealing:

"As rude as it was...he probably had a fair point..."

"REMUS!"

Carrie jumped at the sound of Tonks' furious exclamation, narrowly avoiding hitting her head upon the fence. She recovered just in time to see the now scarlet-haired witch storm out through the open doorway onto the patio, expression livid. Teddy's quiet sniggering did nothing to help matters, and the muggle was quite convinced that one of the two wizards was about to find themselves on the receiving end of a nasty hex or two.

"Anyway," Remus said rather hurriedly, causing Tonks to come to an abrupt halt, incredulous that he would ignore her. "Carrie is perfectly capable of dealing with a few silly remarks from an amateur bully or two, girl or not. Okay?"

"It's a bit different with muggles though, isn't it?" Teddy mused as Tonks deposited herself into a third chair, arms crossed firmly across her chest. "I mean...it doesn't matter with magic, girls can duel just as well as boys...so...so they don't feel so...so threatened..."

"They called her names, Teddy, they didn't threaten to beat her to a pulp! Don't make a mountain out of a mole hill. Have you got any homework?"

"English and History."

"Get to it then, dinner will be early today."

Once Teddy had got to his feet and disappeared back inside, Tonks immediately jumped to her feet, drawing her hand back, ready to strike.

"Full moon!" her husband cried hurriedly, flinching in anticipation of her palm colliding with his face. "It's full moon tonight! No domestic abuse around the full moon! That's the rule!"

"What about VERBAL ABUSE?" Tonks cried, hand dropping to her side as it balled into a tight fist.

"Only if you keep your voice down, I have a headache..."

"HOW COULD YOU SAY THAT ABOUT SNAPE?"

"Well...you know..."

"No, Remus, I don't bloody know! He effectively called me a slut! How in any way shape or form did he have a fair point?"

"What he actually said was that if we needed somebody to keep watch at the bar Dung was talking about you'd be perfect for that job, amongst other jobs that probably went on there."

"EXACTLY! And the way he looked at me...!"

"Yes, Dora. The way he looked at you in your belt masquerading as a mini skirt was utterly despicable and unforgivable. I know. That's why Sirius spiked his pumpkin juice. But if you can waltz into an Order meeting dressed up like that as if it were entirely normal...well...!"

"I was going to a PARTY afterwards!"

"As I recall you didn't go anywhere afterwards..."

"And whose fault was that? Are you going to blame that one on Sirius, too?"

"Of course not! What sort of man do you take me for? That was entirely my fault."

The debate became distinctly non-verbal after that, and Carrie was quick to turn her back upon the fence, clamping her hand across her mouth to stifle her giggling. When Tonks finally spoke a few minutes later, the fury appeared to have seeped from her voice.

"I smashed your coffee mug." Carrie heard her murmur, and Carrie just about caught Remus' mumbled:

"And my knee joints."


	8. A Chaotic Morning

_Note: Since I've been snowed in and can't go to University, here is a new chapter for you! I hope you enjoy it! The best thing about this one is that it's actually relevant to the plot...!_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any profit from this piece of writing._

**8: A Chaotic Morning**

Carrie left her house an extra fifteen minutes early for her second day of Summer School, for it had occurred to her the previous evening, as she sat at her kitchen table writing her English homework, that she probably ought check Teddy's homework over, to make sure it was muggle enough. She didn't want to take the chance that he had mentioned grindylows or werewolves or any other magical creatures. Indeed, the muggle wasn't sure that she could bear the embarrassment.

It was a bright, peaceful Tuesday morning as Carrie pulled her front door firmly shut behind her, slinging her school bag over her shoulder before skipping excitedly across the gravel towards the Lupins' house. Skidding to a halt, she hopped up onto the front step and reached to give the knocker a couple of sharp taps.

Somewhere above her a bird was singing cheerily from atop the Lupins' chimney and the thick bushes to the left of the front door rustled in a gentle breeze. As she waited for the door to open, which seemed to be taking quite a while, Carrie drew in a deep breath, smiling at the tranquil atmosphere.

At that precise moment the door was wrenched open, flying back on its hinges and causing Carrie to jump, narrowly avoiding toppling backwards off the step.

"...I'm telling you, Teddy," Tonks' voice half-shouted as she turned her back on the door without giving Carrie so much as a glance, mound of freshly laundered clothes crumpled under one arm, Teddy's school exercise book in her free hand, "there's no chance she'll have even the faintest idea what colour a cornish pixie is! Come down here and change it! Quick now, Carrie's here!"

As she shuffled over the threshold and reached to shut the door behind her, Carrie heard the sound of pounding footsteps upon the stairs as Teddy seemingly bounced down the steps, causing his mother to pause on her way to the kitchen door, shooting him a distinctly unimpressed look.

"One of these days you're going to stomp right through that staircase!" the pink haired Auror grumbled as he skipped the last four steps entirely, narrowly avoiding crashing into the cloak stand at the bottom. "Keep it down, won't you? Dad's trying to rest."

Teddy shot Carrie a wide grin before darting down the hallway after his mother, announcing:

"You're the one yelling at the top of your lungs, Mum."

Tonks seemingly wasn't listening.

"Sit down." she instructed briskly, dumping the pile of clothes upon the kitchen table and reaching to draw out a chair for him. "Change the last one, okay?"

Carrie wandered up the hallway a little way, watching as Teddy slid into the seat, scowling at the book that was set down in front of him,

"There's nothing wrong with it!" he complained grumpily, only to find the tip of his mother's wand being thrust at the paper, vanishing the carefully written words within a blink of an eye. "M-UM!"

"I don't have time to argue with you, just do it." Tonks insisted, shoving her wand back into her pocket and reaching to grab hold of the scarlet robes that were atop the pile of clothing. She shrugged them on before reaching to rummage through the pile, extracting a pale green short sleeved shirt and a pair of brown cord trousers.

"I can't think of another one!" Teddy grumbled, shooting her an accusing look that she ignored entirely, already halfway out of the door. As the witch swept down the hallway, Carrie watched her pause before the small mirror upon the wall, scrutinizing her reflection for a moment, tutting irritably as she reached to straighten a stray strand of pink hair that was sticking out at an odd angle. Carrie took a few steps closer, smiling to herself as she watched Tonks screw her face up, the pink locks lengthening until the tips brushed her shoulders.

"Wotcher, Carrie love." the witch finally greeted, offering the muggle the briefest of glances before her gaze returned to the mirror.

"Morning." Carrie said, staring in fascination as a pink, lipstick-like sheen seemingly materialized upon Tonks' lips, then quite suddenly Teddy's mother turned on her heel and marched on down the hallway, only to come to an abrupt halt and mutter:

"Bloody socks...!" And with that she turned and dashed back towards the kitchen again.

"What about...she looked as beautiful as a Veela?" Teddy suggested with a broad grin, only for Tonks to hiss:

"Not in the mood!" She snatched up a pair of socks before heading back up the hallway again, the boy sticking his tongue out at her as she went. Carrie watched her come to a halt at the closed living room door, reaching to push it open just enough for her to poke her head inside. From what Carrie could see the lights had been dimmed inside.

"Remus? Clothes." The garments in question were presented somewhat awkwardly through the gap and there was some sort of muffled response that Carrie couldn't quite make out. "D'you want a hand?" Tonks asked after a moment. "Don't want Molly catching you looking like that when she drops in later, do you?" At another muffled reply she slipped awkwardly through the door and Carrie just about caught her announcing: "Nah, Harry's not going to miss me for an extra few minutes."

As the door was pulled shut behind the Auror, Carrie wandered up the hallway and into the kitchen, coming to stop beside Teddy's chair. She peered over his shoulder at his English homework, scanning the sentences with pursed lips.

"Not you as well!" Teddy grumbled, throwing down the pen as he finished writing, closing the book with a firm hand. "Dad checked the first half before he left yesterday and Mum's checked the whole thing at least a million times over breakfast! I'm not an idiot, I know what muggles do and don't say!"

"Sorry..." Carrie mumbled, suppressing a snigger as he got to his feet and stomped his way towards the front door in search of his bag.

"We have Science this morning!" he informed her, brimming with enthusiasm suddenly as he shoved the book into his bag and turned to grin broadly at her. "What do you think we'll be doing?"

"Probably pH nonsense or something." Carrie mused with a frown. "I never get it, I always forget what colour the paper goes for acid and what colour it goes for alkaline."

"Red for acids, blue for alkaline and purple for neutrals." a voice recited out of nowhere, and Carrie failed not to jump, spinning around to find Tonks' head poking out from around the living room door. "Don't believe what that moron of a potions professor tells you, Ted." the witch told her son, grinning at Carrie's surprise. "Potion making isn't an art form, it's a SCIENCE. Listen, love, I need you to floo your gran for me..." she was cut off by a muffled protest from within the room, and without looking round she announced: "I can't hear you, Remus, you're mumbling! Floo Gran, Ted, and tell her I'm running late for work, and Dad's got a fever..." she was cut off yet again, this time by a hoarse voice insisting:

"I'm fine, I don't need her to come. Molly'll be round in a few hours..."

"By which time she could probably fry an egg or two for lunch on your forehead! Just go to sleep, I don't have time to argue with you!" Tonks snapped, rolling her eyes in exasperation. "Molly can't come early, she's at Bill's or George's or something. So floo Gran before you leave for school, alright Teddy love?" Before Teddy could reply she had disappeared back into the room, the door once again closing behind her, and Carrie heard the distinct sound of roaring flames as she disappeared into the floo.

Teddy let out a heavy sigh, dropping his bag to the floor as he wandered towards the door.

"We're going to be late." he grumbled as he reached to grasp hold of the door handle, pulling it downwards to open the door.

Only for it to get stuck halfway with a loud click.

"Oh Merlin..." Teddy muttered, before rattling the door handle with no more success. As Carrie hurried over to his side, the young wizard raised his fist and banged loudly on the door. "DAD? OPEN THE DOOR!"

"Go to school, Ted." came the weary response.

"Yeah...just as soon as you open the door!" the werewolf's son insisted, only for Remus to point out:

"You'll be late if you don't hurry up."

"Just open the door, Dad. I need to floo Gran, otherwise Mum'll go mental when she finds out I didn't!"

"You're welcome to tell her it was all my fault. Now go on, off to school!"

Teddy gave up on the handle and slumped against the door frame with another heavy sigh.

"Are you mad with Gran or something?" he called, shoving his hands irritably into his pockets. "Because if you are that's dumb!" When Remus did not respond he added: "And I'd rather you didn't die in there, you know? You said Mum doesn't need drama...this is all a bit hypocritical then, isn't it?"

"Just leave me to sleep, Ted." came the vague and distinctly sleepy response. "I just...need some sleep..."

"Well you won't get all that much sleep when Mum sends you half a dozen Howlers this afternoon, will you?"

There was no response, and after a long moment Teddy huffed irritably and stomped back down the hallway.

"FINE!" he shouted, snatching up his bag and slinging it over his shoulder with far more force than Carrie thought necessary. "I'M GOING!" As he flung the front door open Carrie shuffled after him, casting one last glance at the locked living room door.

Once outside in the bright morning's sunshine Carrie watched Teddy sidle his way up to the living room window, squinting to get a look through a gap in the curtains.

"Bloody fantastic." he concluded after a mere glance, shuffling back out from the overgrown bushes. "Mum's going to kill him."

Carrie took a turn at edging along the wall, careful not to catch her clothes upon the branches. As she stooped to squint through the gap, she heard Teddy complain:

"He gets like this sometimes...he doesn't like people fussing, especially not my gran."

"Why not?" Carrie asked, wobbling a little as she squinted harder to see inside.

"Because when Mum went and told Gran she was going to marry a werewolf, Gran warned her he'd be a burden, and he'd like to prove her wrong."

Carrie paused in her squinting to round on her friend with wide, disbelieving eyes.

"She did not!" she cried, as Teddy shrugged carelessly. "Your gran wouldn't have said something that horrible!"

"She wasn't being horrible, she was being honest." Teddy explained calmly, smiling a little at the indigent look upon the muggle's face. "Gran loves Dad, she says she'd not wish for a better son-in-law...but that doesn't mean she couldn't wish, does it? Perfection isn't part of a werewolf's anatomy, Dad says. You don't just marry a werewolf just like that, Carrie, you have to think carefully about it, that's all Gran was saying. Besides," he added as Carrie turned back to the window, "Gran was right. Sometimes Dad is a burden. And he knows it."

Nose pressed to the glass, Carrie peered into the dim room beyond the curtains. There she spotted Remus lying upon the sofa, swathed in blankets and staring blankly up towards the ceiling. At the sight of his face, flushed pink, beads of sweat slowly trickling down his forehead, Carrie reached to put a hand to her mouth in dismay.

"Ted..." she breathed, gaze fixated upon the werewolf as his eyes slowly drifted shut, his breathing distinctly shaky, "I think...I think we should do something..."

"Like what?" Teddy asked, apparently nonplussed.

"Like...like call a doctor or something!" Tearing her eyes away from the window, Carrie turned back to face her friend. When he didn't look concerned she folded her arms firmly across her chest and announced: "I mean it, Teddy! He looks like he's dying or something! Let's...let's go to my house...we can...can call a doctor or something..."

"A muggle doctor?"

"Well yes..."

"Cool!"

"TED!"

At her raised voice, Teddy suddenly sobered.

"He doesn't need a doctor, Carrie." he assured the muggle calmly, stepping forward to reach through the bushes and grasp hold of her arm. "Do you reckon Mum would have just left him like that if he did?"

At this question, Carrie felt her own cheeks colouring, and as Teddy guided her out from the bushes she didn't say a word.

"You've not seen him this close after the full moon before, have you?" the young wizard recalled as he turned to lead the way off up the street. "He looks like that most times these days, Mum says it's because he's getting older, his body freaks out even more than it used to. But he'll be fine by the time we get home...kind of." Carrie felt somewhat bewildered by his sudden change of subject when he cried: "Merlin, we need to hurry! We're going to be late!"

As they hurried along the streets towards Oakhurst, talk turned to their History work on Myths and Legends.

"I wanted to write about the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade, but Mum says if I do she'll set fire to my chocolate frog card collection." Teddy grumbled, puffing his cheeks in disappointment.

"The Shrieking Shack?" Carrie said as they turned onto the main road and made for the school gates. "That sounds more like a horror story than a legend."

"People think it's the most haunted building in Britain." Teddy told her, and recalling his mention of ghosts at Hogwarts, Carrie asked:

"Are you sure that's not true? There could be ghosts there, couldn't there?"

"Nah," Teddy said as they passed through the gates and hurried up the sweeping pathway towards the entrance. "The shrieking everybody heard wasn't made by ghosts. It was Dad."

Carrie narrowly avoided tripping over her own feet. As his hand shot out to steady her, she swallowed any exclamations that came to mind, because she could see a very long explanation coming, and quite frankly there wasn't the time. Instead, she simply mused:

"Well I guess I can see why your mum didn't want you to write about it, then."

They arrived in Science class just a few moments after the bell, and to Carrie's disappointment the only seats left were right in front of the teacher's desk.

"I hate having him stare at us the whole time." she muttered to Teddy as she dug around in her pencil case in search of her pen.

"Don't worry," Teddy assured her with a broad grin. "I'm ace at Potions..."

"Science, Ted!"

"You heard my mum, Potions _is_ a Science."

"Not here it isn't!" Carrie hissed as she finally spotted the elusive writing implement, and at that moment the teacher began to speak.

Luckily for Carrie, Teddy hadn't been entirely wrong about the similarities between Science and Potions classes, and though he was rather clueless when it came to setting up the Bunsen burner, he was very good indeed at measuring out chemicals and not smashing test tubes, two things that Carrie had never really mastered. In no time, the pair had both produced a neat table of results that their teacher was impressed with to say the least.

It was a shame that English could not have turned out quite so well.

To be fair, Carrie later supposed, it had begun well enough. Miss Small checked their homework and had a few children read out a few of the sentences that they had come up with, and she had said that Carrie's had been very good. Then she had announced that they would begin to look at narrative and story telling, and then she asked for a volunteer.

And within the blink of an eye, Teddy's hand had shot up in the air, and Carrie had flinched at Miss Small's eyes upon their desk.

"Ah, Theodore!" the teacher had said as she stepped out from behind her desk and swept towards them, causing Carrie to bite her lip in apprehension. "I need you to pop down to the photocopier room for me."

As the class' reading material was set down in front of her friend and she watched him nod at the instructions Miss Small gave him, Carrie silently pleaded for him to simply admit the truth: I don't know how to work a photocopier, Miss.

But instead, the young wizard rose to his feet, reaching to pick up the book in front of him, and asked:

"Where is the photocopier room, Miss Small?"

Carrie stared up at him, eyes wide, but he seemed not to notice. Instead he shot her a broad, distinctly excited smile, before heading for the classroom door.

As Miss Small went back to talking to the class, Carrie stared at the door in panic, struggling to feel assured that Teddy would figure out how to work the machine on his own. Recalling the way he liked to press random buttons on her computer to see what happened, and how even she had problems whenever asked to use the temperamental photocopier in question, she found her own hand shooting up into the air.

Miss Small did not seem to notice her wildly waving arm for a food few minutes, and when she finally did spot Carrie, half standing in her desperate attempt to be seen, the English teacher raised an eyebrow.

"Are you bursting to say something, Caroline?" she asked, and Carrie finally slumped back in her chair, relieved as she announced:

"Yes I...I need to go to the toilet, Miss!"

"I see." Miss Small said, eyebrow still arched as the class collectively sniggered. "Well, go on then."

As she jumped to her feet and hurried towards the door, Carrie barely heard the call of:

"Desperate are you? Must've eaten curry for dinner or something..."

"Mr. Thompson!"

Carrie dashed out of the room and down the corridor, heading for the staircase that led to the offices and, more importantly, the photocopier room.

Perhaps, she hoped, there would be somebody else already there, somebody who would make sure Teddy didn't do something wrong. She wondered precisely what Remus would say should a letter arrive through his letterbox requesting he pay to repair a broken photocopier...or worse still buy Oakhurst a new one.

When she burst through the door of the little room a few minutes later, she found Teddy was alone, peering down at the photocopier's little screen with a deep frown, biting his lip in consideration.

"What are you DOING?" Carrie cried, hastily closing the door firmly behind them. When he turned round to look at her, once again grinning broadly, she said: "You don't even know what a photocopier IS, do you?"

"Well I've taken a good guess." Teddy told her calmly, turning back to the machine. "It makes copies of photos, I think...but this is a book Miss Small gave me, and it doesn't even have pictures..." he glanced sideways at Carrie as she hurried over to stand beside him, and at her mumbled exasperation he looked mildly offended.

"But I think I've got it worked out, the photo...or book...goes under the lid and then all you have to do is type in the code Miss Small was talking about – 1454 - then you just press this green one here..."

As she watched Teddy's Lupin's finger descend upon the button that was about to make one thousand four hundred and fifty four copies of Year Seven's English text, Carrie Winters failed to suppress a shout of alarm.

"DON'T!" she cried, making a desperate grab for his arm, but she was too late, the machine made a loud beeping noise and, as Teddy turned to look at her questioningly, a soft humming noise filled the room.

"It's working!" the young wizard announced proudly, only for his best friend to push him backwards a few steps, reaching to grab hold of a small handle upon the front of the machine.

"WE HAVE TO TAKE THE PAPER OUT! QUICK!" Carrie shouted, and Teddy simply stared at her as she attempting to yank the paper drawer open, only to find that it appeared to be jammed.

"What are you doing? It's working..." Teddy began uncertainly, but it was soon apparent that Carrie was not listening.

"Why. Won't. It. OPEN?" the muggle cried, giving the drawer one more desperate tug, only to lose her grip upon the handle and find herself tripping backwards into Teddy, knocking the pair of them clear off their feet. He fell flat down upon the bristly green carpet, letting out a groan as his head struck the bristles with a soft thud, only for the air to be knocked from his lungs when Carrie landed bodily atop him with a small shriek of surprise. There was a pause as Teddy attempted to gasp for breath and Carrie flinched at his muffled gasp, before she hastily rolled sideways off of him, burying her face in the carpet.

"Are you alright, Teddy?" she squeaked, feeling her face bloom pink in embarrassment, and she wondered if she might give Remus a run for his money when she heard Teddy let out a loud chuckle. Rolling over again until she could proper herself up on one elbow, Carrie fixed her friend with the most furious scowl she could muster.

"This isn't even slightly funny, Ted!" she cried, only for her gaze to dart to the photocopier, where the amount of paper being churned out was at risk of spilling out and onto the floor. "Oh crap!" Carrie exclaimed, back aching in protest as she attempted to scramble to her feet, only for the pile of paper to finally succumb to gravity, a flurry of white descending upon her, causing her to screw her eyes shut and grit her teeth.

She felt the sudden weight of paper upon her lap, and she silently cursed the continuing hum of the photocopier, as yet more paper was deposited in a new pile.

Beside her, she heard Teddy scrambling to his feet, and she opened her eyes to see him back staring at the photocopier controls.

"What if I press the red button?" the boy mused aloud, and before Carrie could say a word he reached with a finger to jab at the button.

The humming continued.

"I don't think it's doing anything." Teddy announced, jabbing the button over and over. "I mean...this light goes green, but apart from that..."

"Unplug it at the mains!" Carrie exclaimed, squinting around for the wall socket in question.

"The what?"

"The mains! The plug in the wall!"

"Oh..." And then, just as Carrie spotted the plug just by Teddy's feet, another load of paper fell from the out tray, knocking a box of pencils from a neighboring desk with it with a small crash. Carrie screwed her eyes shut again, flinching at the crash.

And then the room was suddenly quiet.

The humming had stopped.

Carrie slowly opened her eyes, letting out a sigh of relief as she found herself looking at Teddy, crouched down by the wall, plug held up with a triumphant grin.

The two children both stood up and turned to regard the chaotic mass of paper that now littered the floor of the room.

"Well," Teddy said brightly, tossing the plug to the floor happily. "That wasn't so hard." As Carrie turned to stare at him disbelievingly he said: "We'll just count out fifteen pages and take them back to class."

"And what about all of the others?" Carrie asked, teeth clenched in fury.

"We can...throw them away?"

"And what about all of the others that start coming out when somebody comes in here and plugs the copier in again?"

Teddy shrugged.

"I don't know." he admitted. "But I don't think it matters, we won't be here." At Carrie's furious expression he hastily busied himself with the mound of paper upon the floor. "Let's just tidy this up first." he suggested. "Before somebody comes in and sees what's happened."

With a heavy sigh, Carrie stooped and began to help gather up the paper. It took some time for them to gather it all up, before sneaking out into the corridor to search for a large enough bin to dump it in.

"I hope she's busy in there." Carrie muttered to her friend as they hurried past the Headmistress' office. "I'd like to see you talk your way out of this one, Ted!"

"I bet Dad could!" Teddy sniggered, only to freeze at the sound of a door opening further up the corridor.

Somebody was coming out of the staff room.

"Uh oh..." Carrie breathed, narrowly avoiding walking straight into Teddy's back. "What are we going to..."

"In here!" Teddy hissed, and before Carrie could say a word, she felt him grab hold of her elbow and drag her sideways into the pitch black darkness of a storage cupboard.

It was not for a long moment, after the two children had heard the sound of footsteps passing them by, that Carrie remembered that they were in the same cupboard that Mr. Avery had been examining the previous day.

"Hang on a second..." the muggle mumbled, struggling to stoop in the narrow space and dropping her share of the paper onto the floor. She reached into her pocket and drew out her mobile phone. Flipping it open, the light from the screen illuminated the cupboard with a soft blue light.

"Cool!" Teddy cried, eyes wide in fascination of the object. He held out his hand to examine it more closely, but Carrie thought it wise to ignore him.

"I wonder what the caretaker was doing in here." she said, squinting down at the floor that the man had been inspecting. It was difficult to see much in the mobile's light, and there did not seem to be anything unusual about the floor. Indeed, Carrie did not inspect it for too long, it was grubby from the dirty mops and brooms that had been left there, and it smelt of damp. She reached to pick up a discarded book in one corner so that she could see what was underneath it, only for Teddy to pluck the volume from her hands and squint down at it.

"Local Legends of Southern Britain." he read aloud as in the corner Carrie identified a couple of dead spiders and something sticky that she did not want to know more about. "Cool, I could use this for my History homework!" Dumping his own paper onto the floor and tucking the book under his arm, Teddy crouched down beside his friend and asked: "So can you see anything?"

"No..." Carrie mumbled, deeply disappointed. "Maybe he was just...arranging his brooms or something."

"I don't think so." Teddy said as he too scanned the floor for clues. "He was being really weird!"

"Well we don't have time now." Carrie concluded, straightening up and dusting down her clothes. "We've been gone from English for ages, Miss Small is going to be furious."

And so it was that the two children hurried out of the cupboard, leaving the majority of the paper behind them. As they dashed down the staircase and back towards the classroom, Carrie silently prayed that the afternoon would be far less chaotic.


	9. The Mirror of Mildred Marchbrook

_Note: It's been a while! Sorry about the slow update, I've been really busy! I've finished University for Christmas now, so I may well manage to update a few times over the festive season!_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any profit from this piece of writing. I did, however, create Caroline "Carrie" Winters._

**9: The Mirror of Mildred Marchbrook**

When Teddy and Carrie arrived back at his house that afternoon, fresh out of a thankfully uneventful maths lesson, they found Molly Weasley in the kitchen, a bubbling cauldron set upon stove, from which was drifting a thick steam that Carrie thought smelt somewhat peppery. It made the muggle sneeze.

"You're just in time, Teddy dear!" the witch announced cheerfully as she dipped a large ladle into the cauldron. "You can take this to your father, I expect he'll want to hear all about how you got on at school today."

Carrie watched the grey, speckled concoction being ladled into a glass, before Molly offered the glass to Teddy, who took it with a bright smile.

"Thanks, Grandma Molly." he said as she turned and set about ladling the remainders of the potion into a large glass bottle with the aid of a plastic funnel. "Mum'll be dead glad you came over today, she was quite worried this morning, Dad had a fever." He glanced briefly towards the doorway behind him, as if debating whether to continue, before adding: "I was supposed to send for Gran to come over and look after him, like Mum told me to, but he locked me out of the living room."

Molly paused in her ladling in order to turn a fix the boy with a frown.

"He had a fever this morning?"

"Yeah..."

"What time this morning?"

Teddy looked somewhat pleased with himself when he informed her:

"About half seven...eight perhaps."

Carrie noticed that Molly's grip upon the ladle visibly tightened as she recalled:

"Well that's not what he told me! He...he said it'd come on suddenly half an hour or so before I arrived!"

"Oh no, Grandma, that's not right at all, is it Carrie?" as Teddy turned to smile at his best friend, the muggle watched with pursed lips as the ladle was withdrawn from the cauldron in a distinctly determined manner. "We saw him, didn't we? You wanted to fetch a doctor, didn't you?"

"Um..." Carrie mumbled, feeling her cheeks warming, only to feel quite glad when Molly seemingly ignored her.

The Weasley matriarch was making a furious beeline for the living room.

"REMUS LUPIN!" she cried a moment later as she burst through the door, the children hurrying after her. "WHAT IN MERLIN'S NAME HAVE YOU BEEN DOING?"

From his position propped up upon the sofa, surrounded by a mound of pillows and blankets, Remus looked up from the book that he was staring somewhat blankly at to fix the witch with an equally blank look. When she simply glowered at him accusingly, he glanced past her towards Carrie and Teddy.

"I just snitched on you, Dad." Teddy explained proudly as he walked forward to offer his father the glass of potion, and the werewolf heaved a resigned sigh.

"Seven o'clock this morning...!" Molly exclaimed, brandishing the ladle in an almost threatening manner, leaving Carrie to wonder if Remus was about to find himself struck around the head with it. "Tonks asked Ted to fetch Andromeda for a good reason, Remus! You can't go five hours burning up like that all on your own! No wonder I thought I'd be dragging you off to Mungo's this afternoon! Five hours! What were you THINKING?"

When Remus merely closed his book with a snap and leant back, eyes drifting closed, the fiery haired witch instead demanded to know:

"What exactly is Tonks going to say when she gets home?"

"I can't say I know for sure, but I'm pretty sure she can shout it louder than you can."

"GOOD!" Molly cried, eyes widening somewhat madly. "And I hope that's the least of your problems! If you were MY husband I'd curse you to the moon and back!"

"Plus," Teddy added, causing Remus' eyes to snap open so that he could scowl at him in warning, "You told me I wasn't allowed to get Mum stressed, because of her rabies, and..."

"For the final time, Theodore, your mother does NOT have rabies!" Remus interrupted irritably, as Molly looked intrigued.

"Then what's wrong with her?"

"There's nothing wrong with her."

"Yes there is, she's a total fruitcake..."

"What's not normal about that? She's absolutely fine. Now go and help Molly clean up the kitchen, she needs to be home to start dinner."

As Teddy turned with a huff to head back to the kitchen, Molly hissed:

"I could...I could HEX you right now!"

"You can do anything you wish, Molly," Remus told her with a weak smile, "just as long as you don't tell Dora."

"Don't tell her?"

"Yes, don't tell her. Teddy's right, she mustn't get worked up." At the questioning and startlingly piercing look he was offered, the werewolf added: "I don't want to end up rowing with her when we're about to go on holiday."

"There isn't much to row about, Remus, you've been foolish and you don't have a leg to stand on."

"Is that supposed to be a pun?"

At this question, Molly clenched her teeth against an irritable retort and he sobered somewhat to tell her:

"Please Molly, don't say anything. It's very important. Just...take my word for it."

"Just as long as you promise never to be so stupid ever again."

"Of course, I promise."

Carrie watched a vague smile touch Molly's lips as she murmured:

"Liar. Dragons don't change their scales." And with that she turned and went after Teddy, Remus smiling after her. The smile faded a little from his pale face as he halted Carrie's own retreat by calling her name.

The muggle felt her insides twist nervously when he said:

"I think we ought have a talk, you and I."

As she reluctantly shuffled over to curl up in the vacant armchair, Carrie pursed her lips together worriedly. She had quite forgotten Remus' promise to Tonks that he would talk to Carrie about her attitude towards the magical world. Immediately her biggest fear surfaced in her mind and before she could think much she found herself making it verbal.

"Are you going to tell me not to come round anymore?"

There was an agonizingly long pause as Remus straightened up a little, rearranging the blankets across his lap before taking an experimental sip of the peppery potion. Carrie watched him frown ever so slightly before downing the mixture in a few large gulps, then he leaned slowly to set the glass down upon the sideboard. He turned back to regard the girl with dark rimmed, bloodshot eyes, and yet Carrie found herself calmed by his gaze, accompanied by a small smile upon cracked lips.

"Why would I tell you that?" he asked, and Carrie immediately fixed her eyes upon her socks.

"Well..." she mumbled, wondering quite what she should say other than admitting that she had overheard both his and his wife's thoughts about her need to attend summer school. "Maybe...maybe you think I should...should mix with other muggles more often."

"Why would I think that?"

"Because...because that's what I am. I'm a muggle. And I can be around you all as much as I like, but that doesn't really make me one of you." Carrie reached to fiddle with a loose strand of her hair, blinking back tears.

"Well," Remus said after a thoughtful pause. "I suppose I might think that. But I might think plenty of other things, too."

"Like what?" Carrie asked, distracted for a brief moment when he reached to pick up his wand from beside the empty glass and, with a brief twirl and a mutter, conjured a white cotton handkerchief that floated across the room and down onto her lap. As she shot him a small, watery smile and picked up the offering, he mused:

"Well, for one thing I think you do Teddy good. I'm glad to have you around, for his sake at the very least. And I think he does you good too. Steadfast friends are very important when we are young, they're constants in our lives, that can be a great comfort should times ever be hard. And of course Ted is teaching you responsibility, what with you needing to keep an eye on him at summer school. Learning to be responsible is one of life's big lessons, Carrie, you can't truly grow up without it.

The thing you must remember, however, is that there are plenty of other lessons out there, including the ones at school. Now I'm not going to bother telling you that school is important, you know that I'm sure. What I will tell you is that you are right to a degree, magic isn't contagious, if you sit here with me long enough you aren't going to miraculously become a witch, but that doesn't mean you aren't one of us. There are all sorts of groups you can split people into, magical and muggle are just two of them. And that's how muggles fit into wizarding society, Carrie, they group people differently. They group us as families and friends, not magical and not magical."

"Do you know many muggles who know about magic?" Carrie asked, feeling a sudden swell of excitement at the prospect. Remus frowned in consideration, finally deciding:

"A few...yes."

"Like who?"

"Well...Hermione is a muggle born, so her parents are muggles, and then there are Squibs, like Arabella Figg, though she died a few years back..."

"What about ones like me? Ones who aren't related to wizards?"

Remus' gaze drifted towards the ceiling, frown deepening as he adjusted the blankets around him. He was silent long enough to make Carrie's heart sink, shifting in her chair so that she could hug her knees to her chest.

"I'm the only one, aren't I?" she concluded dully, and he hurriedly recalled:

"The muggle Prime Minister knows about us...I've just never met him."

Carrie's sulk was instantly disturbed as she turned to stare at him in astonishment.

"The...the Prime Minister?"

"Yes."

"He knows about magic?"

"Indeed he does."

"But...how? Why?"

Stifling a yawn, the werewolf simply shrugged.

"We couldn't hide a couple of wars from Mugglekind all on our own." he mumbled sleepily as if it were all terribly obvious, and for a moment Carrie wanted to laugh at the absurdness of the world. But then Remus seemingly gave himself a little shake as if to wake himself up. "Just because I've not met them doesn't mean muggles like you don't exist. Muggles marry wizards and witches, Carrie, it happens often enough. And they fit in perfectly well without losing who they are. Who would marry them if they were to change? We're not as different from one another as you think we are. The best way to fit in is simply not to. Be who you are, not who you think you would like to be, because that person doesn't exist. Be the biggest muggle that ever there was! We'll like you just the same for it."

It was at that moment that towards the back of the house there came the sound of the kitchen door opening and there were footsteps in the hallway before Molly reappeared in the living room, Teddy trailing behind her, nose buried in the book he had found in the cupboard at school.

"Well then," Molly said, offering Carrie a smile as she headed across the room to squint down at Remus with no small amount of scrutiny. "I better be going, Remus dear, will you manage on your own?"

Carrie couldn't help but think that Remus wanted to roll his eyes at her, especially when she reached to press the back of her hand to his forehead with pursed lips. But instead he fixed the most grateful expression that he could muster onto his face and told her:

"I'm sure I can manage perfectly well, Molly. Teddy is home, after all."

"I've left dinner out on the side for you." she informed him to his clear surprise. "You just need to stick it in the oven..."

"You really didn't need to..."

"Nonsense dear! Tonks won't want the hassle when she gets home, will she? Speaking of Tonks, what time is she coming home this evening? Not too late, I hope."

"She'll be home any time now."

"Good. Well, if I don't see you before you leave, have a wonderful holiday!"

"We certainly will do. Thanks for today."

"You're very welcome!" the witch turned to glance in Teddy's direction, only to find him still reading intently. "Goodnight then, Teddy dear." she said, as though she did not expect much of a reply. "Goodbye Carrie." And with that, she reached for the pot of floo powder upon the mantlepiece, before disappearing in a roar of emerald flames.

As silence descended upon the room, only to be disturbed by the rustling of paper as Teddy eagerly turned a page of his book, Remus eyed his son with a raised eyebrow.

"Ted?" he said after a moment, but Teddy was seemingly oblivious to the world, it was not until his father had called him several times, finally resorting to a hoarse shout of: "Theodore!" that he finally graced the werewolf with his attention.

"Hm?" the boy mumbled, dragging his gaze from the page he was studying intently, only to find that Remus did not look particularly pleased with him.

"Did you actually help Molly in the kitchen, or were you too busy reading your book?" Remus inquired, eyebrow migrating further north in such a way that made Carrie pretty sure he already knew the answer to the question.

"I put the cutlery away in the drawer..." Teddy mumbled rather uncertainly. "The forks, at least..." At his father's deep sigh, the young wizard added: "Sorry, Dad."

"I think you'll find it should have been _sorry Molly,_ actually."

"Yeah...but look! Look at what we found at school today, Dad, it's a book of local legends and there's one about Oakhurst in here!" Teddy turned the book around to display the text to his father, as if Remus could read it from his position propped up upon the sofa. When the werewolf failed to look impressed, the boy turned to show Carrie instead. "It's got witches in it." he added, just in case she wasn't impressed enough.

Carrie immediately scrambled out of the armchair and hurried over to peer down at the book.

"What does it say?" she asked excitedly, as over on the sofa Remus' eyes drifted closed once again. "Do you think it could be more than a legend? If it has witches in it?"

"I don't know," Teddy said with a frown. "I was going to ask Dad about it. Dad? Dad, will you read this?"

Remus sighed yet again, but consented to holding out a blind hand to accept the book.

"Read it to Carrie!" Teddy cried excitedly as he handed it over, dropping down onto the carpet and fixing his father with an expectant look. As Carrie sat down too, Remus took a moment to readjust the blankets around him, shifting until he was sat straighter in his seat. Clearing his throat he squinted down at the book, reaching with his free hand to rub the sleep from his eyes. When he finally began to read, Carrie listened intently to every single word.

"_The Mirror of Mildred Marchbrook, as recalled in the town of Eddington, formally Oakhurst Village. There was once an old spinster who lived on the outskirts of Oakhurst village, and her name was Mildred Marchbrook. Although Mildred's brother and his family also lived in the village and were held in high regard by their neighbors, Mildred chose to live an isolated life, shunning the other villagers and openly devoting herself to the practice of witchcraft. The village children referred to her as Mill Dread, because they were afraid to pass her cottage upon the lane, and when a number of mysterious disappearances occurred in the area the finger of blame was immediately pointed at Mildred. She was sentenced to death by the local magistrate, but was seemingly unconcerned by her fate. Faced by a crowd of hostile villagers when the day of her execution arrived, she announced that magic had been the greatest gift that she could ever have received, and that one day she would pass on this gift to another like her. _

_Legend claims that upon her death, Mildred Marchbrook left behind a mirror that was to be passed down through her brother's family, only to be looked into by the first daughter to be born. The mirror is said to gift the beholder with Mildred's magical powers, so that she too may experience the wonders of witchcraft._

_Generations passed and no daughters were born to Mildred's ancestors, until Henry Marchbrook, master of the local school, which once stood where Oakhurst Manor School stands today, married Lilian Smith and they had a daughter, Penelope. Henry was said to have put the mirror in safe keeping, meaning to present it to Penelope upon her marriage, but he succumbed to smallpox when Penelope was aged just nine years old. The mirror was subsequently lost, though it is believed that it is still in safe keeping somewhere within the school grounds._" Upon ending, Remus found both children staring up at him expectantly, and Carrie felt somewhat disheartened when he concluded: "That's a myth if ever I heard one."

"Are you sure?" Carrie found herself asking, feeling rather adamant that he ought change his mind. The idea of a magic mirror that could turn her into a witch was quite possibly the most wonderful thing that she had ever heard of. "I mean...is there...is there a spell or...or something that can make muggles magic?"

"As I've always said," Remus explained as he held the book out for Teddy to retrieve, "witches and wizards are born, not made. Sorry, Carrie." He offered the muggle an apologetic smile.

"But what about magical objects?" Teddy asked, bolstering Carrie's hopes once again. "There are some powerful things out there, like...like the Resurrection Stone, that can raise the dead!"

"Not in the true sense it doesn't..." Remus mumbled, sounding distinctly uncomfortable at the thought, though Carrie wasn't entirely sure why.

"Well no, but it's dead powerful, isn't it? I bet there are loads of powerful things out there, things that can do amazing things."

"There's no doubt. But they don't make wizards and witches, at least I've never heard of anything of the kind before. It's an intriguing bedtime story, that's about it."

"So...you don't think there really is a mirror then?" Teddy attempted to clarify, and Carrie's spirits sunk to her socks when Remus confirmed:

"No, I don't. Not a magic mirror, anyway." And with that, the werewolf threw back the blankets from around him and set about heaving himself up onto his feet. Carrie barely heard him announcing that he was going to go and put dinner in the oven, nor his suggestion that Teddy get his homework finished. She was much too busy attempting to banish the deep sense of disappointment that was swelling inside of her, and as she watched Remus wander out into the hallway, she found herself wondering whether or not he could be wrong. Ever since she had first met Teddy's father, Carrie had always considered his opinion to be worth ten of anybody else's. Remus was, she had quickly decided, thoughtful. Very thoughtful. Anything he ever said seemed to be so well prepared, so thoroughly considered, so much so that there did not seem to be much that he did not know. And even on the rare occasion that he was unsure of something, he always seemed able to make uncertainty appear to be a solid and worthwhile conclusion.

And yet, no matter how she recalled the many times that she had trusted Remus' judgment, or how many times she had found herself wondering what he would have to say about something, Carrie's desire to believe in the legend of Mildred Marchbrook, to believe that somewhere out there was a way to make her magical, made her dismiss all that Remus had said.


	10. The Love Life of Mr Richard Avery

_Note: Dedicated to **NinjaTerra**, and any other Cleo fans! Enjoy! =)_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any profit from this piece of writing._

**10: The Love Life of Mr. Richard Avery**

Carrie awoke the following morning, fresh from dreams of a magic mirror and explosions of magic like fireworks in a night sky. She dragged herself of bed and was midway through padding across the landing towards the bathroom when she heard her mother calling from the bottom of the stairs.

"You've got a letter." Mrs. Winters announced, holding out an envelope for the girl to see, and Carrie rushed down the stairs to retrieve it, retreating to her bedroom to examine it more closely.

Once sat upon the edge of her bed, Carrie stared down at the envelope keenly. It was made a mottled, cream parchment and her name had been written upon the front in neat, curling letters. Flipping it over, she reached to slide the envelope open before carefully extracting the short letter within.

_Carrie, _

_Dora and I leave for Southern France this morning. We have a reservation for Room 102 at the Grand Hotel, I have enclosed the full address for you. Do not hesitate to write to me if you feel the need at all, if anything goes wrong whilst you and Teddy are at school. He assures me that he will be on his very best behavior whilst we are away, and will be staying at his grandmother's house when he is not at school. I have left the attic room's window open. I'm sure if you open your own window and shake a box of owl treats loud enough, Godric will grace you with his presence and you can use him to send your letters. I hear cat treats are equally as effective, he is not a fussy eater after all. _

_We will be back home in ten days time. _

_Have a good time at school, and try to keep Teddy from getting both of you into any more trouble! _

_Take Care,_

_Remus _

Carrie couldn't help but feel an odd sense of worry descend upon her, knowing that Teddy's parents were going to hundreds of miles away, leaving Teddy to his own devises. Over breakfast she asked her mother exactly how far south Southern France was. It seemed to be quite a long way.

When she wandered down the hallway to answer a knock upon the door some five minutes later, Carrie Winters had absolutely no idea that when she was going to write to Remus, she would not be driven by concerns about Teddy in the slightest. Indeed, Carrie would be far more concerned about somebody else entirely.

Upon discovering Teddy Lupin upon her doorstep, Carrie hurriedly pulled on her shoes and snatched up her school bag, calling a vague goodbye to the rest of the house before escaping out the door.

"You're ready early." she observed as she and Teddy crunched their way down the gravel driveway. Glancing over her shoulder towards his house she asked: "Did you parents leave yet?"

"Dad was up at five." Teddy told her, sounding revolted. "It was unnatural. They left about half an hour ago by the floo."

"I bet they were excited!" Carrie exclaimed, only for his gaze to drop to the pavement as they turned up the street. After scrutinizing his despairing expression, she reached to lay a hand upon his arm. "What's wrong, Ted?"

The young wizard glanced sideways at her, grip upon his bag tightening as he mumbled:

"They're hiding something."

Carrie pursed her lips together and attempted to look bemused.

"Hiding something? What makes you think that?"

"Because Dad cracked this morning. I got up to use the bathroom, only Mum was in there...I could hear her crying. So I went downstairs to tell Dad...and...and do you know what he said?"

"What did he say?"

Teddy came to an abrupt halt, turning to fix Carrie with wide, panicked eyes.

"He just said: Looks like she could use a holiday, then! And then! And then he LAUGHED! He laughed and then he bolted up the stairs like I'd just told him I'd set my bedroom on fire! I think something's wrong, Carrie. Very wrong." He frowned deeply, reaching to bite a nail in consideration before concluding: "I think Mum's sick."

At the panic in his voice, Carrie could not help but announce:

"She's not sick. I know she isn't." She mentally kicked herself for such an admittance, feeling a rush of panic when Teddy looked at her curiously.

"How do you know?" he asked, and the muggle gave a hurried shrug.

"Well...well she can't be sick, Ted...sick people don't go on holiday, do they? They just stay in bed!"

Teddy made a disbelieving grunt as they carried on up the road.

"What did you write for the History homework?" he asked, and Carrie shrugged.

"Saint George and the Dragon." she supplied, and the wizard gave an unimpressed snort.

"That's a stupid story." he told her as they rounded a corner. "There's no way a muggle could slay a dragon!"

"I don't see why not!" Carrie replied indigently, folding her arms defensively across her chest. "Besides, Mildred's mirror is stupid too! That's what your dad said, anyway."

"Well it's more likely than a muggle killing dragon."

Carrie opened her mouth to protest, only to find herself wishing:

"I hope so."

They walked on in silence for several minutes until Carrie wondered aloud:

"Maybe Mr. Avery knows about the mirror too."

"What makes you think that?" Teddy asked skeptically.

"Well...we did find that book in his storage cupboard..." Carrie trailed off at the sound of a bicycle bell dinging loudly behind them, and the two children paused in their walking to glance over their shoulders.

"CARRIE!" Cleo's voice half shrieked from back up the road, as if the incessant bell ringing had not quite caught her friend's undivided attention. The self-professed witch came whizzing up the pavement towards them, dark hair in knotty disarray being blown back from her face by the breeze. Her bicycle skidded to a halt mere inches from Carrie's foot, making the girl wince in anticipation of a broken toe or two.

"Hi Cleo." Carrie greeted a moment later, having paused to get over the near miss, and the other girl shot Teddy a wide grin in acknowledgment, before asking Carrie:

"What are you doing after school today?"

"Nothing much, I don't think." Carrie told her, resisting the urge to sound disappointed. The worst thing about Remus and Tonks being away was, by far, the fact that Teddy would not be around to spend time with her outside of school.

"Do you want to come round for tea?" Cleo asked, still grinning broadly. "Barbie and Cindy will probably hog the TV, but Dad's left the attic ladder down, we could go up and have a nose around if you want."

"Cool..." Carrie began, only for Teddy to ask:

"What's that _smell_?"

As the young wizard's nose wrinkled in disgust, the foul odour finally assaulted Carrie's nostrils and she struggled not to reached to pinch her nose in revulsion.

"That," Cleo announced, seemingly entirely unaware of the stench, "is home made spot cream! I read about it on the Internet, I've made some for Mum's birthday, do you want to see?"

Carrie felt Teddy's hand reaching to grasp hold of her by the elbow, giving her firm tug onwards up the road.

"Maybe later!" he exclaimed cheerfully, ignoring Cleo's roll of the eyes. "We've got to get a move on...we'll be late for school!"

As her best friend dragged her on up the street, Carrie turned to offer Cleo a hasty wave, promising:

"I'll see you after school!"

Almost as soon as they were out of earshot, and Carrie had glanced back to see Cleo heading in the opposite direction, Teddy instantly dissolved into a fit of giggles.

"Shhh!" Carrie demanded, finding it difficult not to join him. "She might hear you!"

T"Don't be silly Carrie, she isn't going to hear me...home made SPOT CREAM! Merlin, whatever you do, don't tell her when it's MY birthday!"

When they finally passed through the school gates five minutes later, Carrie caught sight of the caretaker, Mr. Avery, trimming the bushes on the other side of the school lawn.

"Why do you think it is, Ted, that Mr. Avery knew your name that day in the cafeteria?" she asked the boy beside her, who paused in his fiddling with the straps of his bag to offer her a careless shrug.

"I have no idea, Carrie."

"Well...don't you think it's a bit odd?"

"Maybe..."

"There's no maybe about it, Ted! It's VERY odd!"

Teddy came to an abrupt halt at the bottom of the stairs that lead to the school's main entrance. As she narrowly avoided tripping over her own feet as she hurried to stop beside him, Carrie watched him glance over at the caretaker, who was busy shoveling leaves into a large green sack.

"Listen, Carrie..." the boy murmured, turning back to face the girl, leaning towards her until their faces were mere inches apart. "I think you need to stop this fascination you've got with Avery and his broom cupboard."

Carrie's mouth fell open in indignation, hands flying to her hips as she positively glowered at the boy.

"MY fascination?" she cried, causing a couple of passing Year Eight girls to stare at her as they mounted the steps. "You're just as keen to find out what's going as I am!"

"There was a Death Eater called Avery, you know." Teddy announced flatly, folding his arms firmly across his chest. "And if that man over there knows who I am, I wouldn't be surprised if it's because he's related to wizards."

For a long moment, Carrie simply gawped at him, and when she finally found her voice again she asked:

"When did you figure that out? Why didn't you say something?"

"I didn't figure it out." Teddy muttered, reaching to grab her by the arm and drag her up the steps, giving her a little shake when she turned to stare over her shoulder at the caretaker. "Dad did last night after dinner."

"You...you told your dad about hiding in the cupboard and...and everything?"

"I have to tell him everything, Carrie. I don't think he or Mum trust me to behave. If I don't tell him every tiny detail of what I've been up to at school every day he says he'll cancel Christmas."

"Your dad can't cancel Christmas, Teddy! I mean...he can't, can he?"

"I don't want to try and find out."

There was a lull in conversation as Teddy set about extracting his timetable from his bag, and as he identified their first lesson as being Maths, Carrie wondered:

"Isn't you dad...worried?"

"Worried?" Teddy repeated as he shoved the paper back into his bag and they set off towards Registration.

"Isn't he worried about you going to a school where they employ a Death Eater as a caretaker?"

"Dad never said he was a Death Eater. He just said he had the same surname as one."

"Yeah but...but your dad also said that the Goyles weren't Death Eaters, only related to some. And look how friendly they turned out to be!"

"My Mum is related to Death Eaters, Carrie." Teddy pointed out with a dismissive wave of the hand. "Half her family were Death Eaters and her aunt was Voldemort's Bitch."

"Voldemort's..._Bitch_...?"

"Yep, that's what Mum calls her."

Carrie was glad to have Teddy with her that day to keep her distracted from the constant niggling thoughts about whether or not Avery was indeed as shifty an individual as his name suggested, and why, if he was, she found herself more curious about him than ever. Maths passed without any major hiccups, unless one counted the fact that Teddy managed to break all three of the scientific calculators that the teacher had leant him, after which she insisted he share Carrie's, (Carrie was pretty certain that the percentage button on her calculator was never going to work ever again. Her resolve never to leave Teddy alone in a room with her computer doubled tenfold). By the end of the day there were no major incidents for Carrie to write to Remus about, though on the way to Cleo's house, having said goodbye to Teddy at the school gates, Carrie took a very long detour to the shops and, once she had fussed over the rabbits that were on sale, had bought a large tin full of cat treats. They seemed to rattle rather loudly when she shook them experimentally, and so she supposed they would do for luring Godric out of his room should she need to write to Remus.

When she arrived at Cleo's house some while later, she was greeted at the door by the dark haired girl's whispered assurance that it was safe to come in because Cindy hadn't arrived with the bottles of fake tan quite yet.

As it happened, Bowie's best friend did not arrive for some hour, during which Carrie and Cleo had climbed the ladder up to the loft, each armed with a torch, to do a spot of treasure hunting. As she peered into a box full of old toys in one corner of the dusty room, Carrie spotted something of interest in the box next to it out of the corner of her eye. She reached to stick her hand inside, pushing past what seemed to be a rusty old saucepan, before her fingers finally closed around the object and she gave it a firm tug.

"Found something?" Cleo called from behind her, engrossed in her examination of an old doll that appeared to be missing both eyeballs.

"It's a mirror." Carrie called back as she raised the dusty looking glass to her face so that she could peer at herself through the dark. Thumb scuffing the gilt silver handle, the girl smiled to herself.

_I wonder_, she told her reflection silently as she reached with her free hand to run a finger around the mirror's frame, _what would it feel like, magic? Would becoming a witch make me feel different?_

She watched herself let out a little sigh and her mind began to wander to magic mirrors and witches...

And it was at that moment that Carrie Winters realized something. She understood that snooping around at school was not the wisest of ideas. She understood that, with a man named Avery around busy doing some snooping of his own, she ought be very cautious indeed.

But she also understood that none of this really mattered, because try as she might, she simply didn't care what Remus had said about it.

It was a shame that Teddy seemed so keen to be entirely sensible about the whole thing, the muggle mused with a sigh. It was, after all, something unheard of. Teddy Lupin and sensible just didn't seem to match. Carrie dreaded to think what Remus had said that would persuade the boy to be so out of character.

So boring...

"Bloody hell!" Cleo's voice exclaimed, bringing Carrie back to reality with a small jump. "Look at my HAIR!"

Carrie shuffled until she was facing her friend, sniggering at the old school photographs that Cleo was holding up to show her, in which a four year old with long pigtails and bows grinned somewhat manically at the camera.

"You look scary." Carrie admitted, and Cleo discarded the photograph in disgust. "It's fun this, don't you think? It's like a treasure hunt."

"I love treasure hunts!" Cleo exclaimed as she delved into yet another box, the context of which gave a squeak that confirmed that it was stuffed with yet more children's toys.

And Carrie Winters found herself smiling broadly, setting down her torch and sitting herself down upon the dusty floor.

"I'm on a real treasure hunt." she announced, breaking out into a grin when predictably Cleo's head whipped back round to stare at her. "I'm looking for a magic mirror. A real one. D'you want to help me, Cleo?"

Carrie's telling of The Mirror of Mildred Marchbrook was by far creepier and more intense than when Remus had read it from the book that Teddy had found. Of course it probably helped that Carrie and Cleo were sat in a dark, dusty attic with no light save the torch that the storyteller was using to illuminate her face. Cleo was a much more verbal audience, too. She oohed and aahed in all the right places and fidgeted in excitement at the prospect of finding the mirror. When they retreated downstairs some while later in search of a drink, Carrie was about to suggest that Cleo meet her at the school gates after school the next day so that they could begin their investigations when the doorbell rang and Cleo hurried down the stairs to open the front door.

"Bloody hell!" the girl exclaimed once the door was open a crack, jumping backwards and holding her hands up to her eyes as if to shield them. "The orange! IT BLINDS ME!"

Carrie attempted to stifle a snigger as Bowie's best friend Kayleigh pushed her way into the hallway, seemingly oblivious to Cleo's teasing as she demanded to know:

"Where's your sister?"

As the girl stomped down the hallway in her teetering heels, shouting Bowie's name at the top of her lungs, Cleo reached to push the door shut with a scowl.

"Alright Cindy, keep your hair extensions on! What's wrong, did somebody break a nail?"

"Shut it, squirt." Bowie's voice automatically snapped as she dashed out of the kitchen towards her friend. Carrie joined Cleo at the bottom of the stairs and together the two of them watched the two older girls skid to a halt before one another, reaching to grasp one another excitedly by the hands.

"What is it?" Bowie cried, eyes widening in anticipation, and Kayleigh opened and closed her mouth a few times as if she couldn't quite manage to get the words out.

"God, look at them!" Cleo muttered as Kayleigh resorted to letting out an odd little squeal of excitement, causing Bowie to hop from foot to foot impatiently, desperately shouting:

"What? What is it?"

"If I ever make a noise like that, Carrie, you have to promise to gouge out my voice box with a spoon." Cleo hissed, her eyes widening in disgust.

"RICHARD...!" Kayleigh finally managed to squeal, and Bowie's grip on her hands tightened to such an extent that Carrie thought she might snap a few fingers.

"Yes...? What about him?"

"He's...he's...HERE!"

"You're not talking about the Bin Raider from school again, are you?"

"Shut UP, Cleo!"

"He's just knocked on your neighbors' door! I SAW him!"

"Oh my god!"

"And! AND, you'll never guess what?"

"What? Tell me!"

"Whatsherface...you know, the daughter..."

"Juliette?"

"YES! Juliette! She opened the door and...and oh my GOD, you'll never believe me..."

"What happened?"

"She...he...they KISSED! Juliette bloody Downton is Richard's GIRLFRIEND!"

"NO!"

"Yes! They were snogging and everything!"

"No way! You're taking the piss!"

"I don't think she is, sis. I don't think she'd risk running up the driveway and possibly laddering her tights unless she was being serious...what are you doing?"

As both teenagers turned and ran back towards the front door, Kayleigh flinging it open wide as Bowie struggled to pull a pair of trainers onto her feet, Cleo shook her head in disbelief.

"Are you...GOING ROUND THERE?" she cried, and Bowie paused in her struggle to offer her little sister a scowl.

"Of course not!"

"Good, because you know, they might be Doing It on the sofa or something..."

"We're just going to have a peek through the window."

"What? God, you two are bloody mental!" Cleo turned to roll her eyes in Carrie's direction, only find that her friend had dropped down onto the bottom stair and was busy pulling her own shoes onto her feet. "Carrie...?" she managed to inquire, completely bemused at the sight, only for Carrie to jump to her feet and dash out of the door after the others. As silence descended upon the hall, Cleo took a moment to simply blink uncomprehendingly at the open front door, before she hastily grabbed the nearest pair of shoes she could find and set about pulling them on.

"Stop pushing!"

"Move up, I won't be able to see..."

"This is stupid."

"Go home then!"

"Shhh!"

As she and the other three girls slowly shuffled along under the front window sill of the Downton house, Carrie glanced over her shoulder down the driveway to check that nobody was watching them. She dreaded to think what the people over the road would think if they chose that precise moment to glance out of their windows. When Cleo accidentally elbowed her in the ribs and she narrowly avoided toppling backwards onto her back, Carrie reached to grasp hold of the window sill above in an effort to steady herself.

Cleo was probably right, she realised as they all came to a halt. This was stupid. She wasn't even sure why she had decided to take a sudden interest in Richard Avery's love life, she'd just heard his name mentioned and...well...here she was.

"This window's open." she heard Bowie whisper, voice more hushed than ever, only for Cleo to grumble:

"How'd you know they're even in the living..."

"Shh! I can hear something!"

All four girls fell silent, straining their ears to catch wind of any sound. At first, Carrie was pretty sure that Kayleigh had been mistaken, for she could hear nothing at all coming from inside the house, but after a moment she thought she heard a strange, low noise, almost as if somebody were groaning.

"I'm going to look!" Cleo whispered impatiently, and as the girl slowly rose up to peer through the window, the other three followed her lead. The top of the window sill was just about coming into Carrie's view when beside her Kayleigh let out a gasp and Bowie reached to grab both younger girls by the arm, giving them a firm tug downwards ans she squeaked:

"Oooooo-kay! Well, nothing to see here, kids! Let's...let's go!"

And all at once the girls scrambled to their feet, Cleo letting out a shriek of appalled laughter as she cried:

"Was I was right? They're DOING IT, aren't they?"

"SHHHHH!" Bowie demanded, abandoning her hold on Carrie in order to grab Cleo by the shoulders and give her a hasty shove back towards their house. As Kayleigh rushed to push her way past Carrie in order to make a run for it, Carrie at last overbalanced, falling flat upon her back with a poorly suppressed groan.

"Wait for me!" she muttered, afraid to raise her voice as she watched the other girls dash back towards the safety of Cleo's front door. A dull ache blossomed on the back of her head, and for a long moment Carrie simply lay there, staring up at the cloudy grey sky.

"Come on, Carrie!" Cleo called, only for Bowie to clamp a hand over her mouth and motion frantically for Carrie to move instead.

Carrie reached to push herself up onto the balls of her feet, swaying a little from her aching head as she grasped hold of the window sill and pulled herself upwards, heart hammering so furiously in her chest that she was entirely unaware of Bowie's hissed caution that she might be seen. As she pulled herself up onto her feet, stumbling a little in her haste, Carrie screwed her eyes shut, determined not to catch sight of anything even vaguely similar to what Cleo claimed. Now level with the open window, her face contorted in horror at the thought of what she might hear.

And yet what she did hear in the short few moments before she turned and fled like the three girls before her did not disgust Carrie Winters in the slightest.

Indeed, what she heard intrigued her.

"Just you wait," a deep and breathless voice murmured from just inside the window. "I'm going to make you perfect."


	11. Typical

_Note: Meet the Lupins, Meet the Muggles and Lessons on Lycanthropy have been added to the community **The Best Harry Potter Fanfiction Ever**! Thank you very much to **TheOrderThePhoenixReunited** for the kind adds, and well done for choosing such a wonderfully flattering title for your community! Quite naturally, this chapter is dedicated to you! _

_Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any profit from this piece of writing._

**11: Typical**

When Teddy Lupin knocked upon Carrie Winters' front door the following morning, it was flung open before he could lower his fist.

"Richard Avery's dating a muggle!" the girl announced as she snatched up her school bag and jumped enthusiastically over the threshold and out onto her driveway. "She lives next door to Cleo."

"He's not a Death Eater, then." Teddy mused, causing Carrie to smile smugly at his interest. "If he was he wouldn't touch a muggle girl with a fifty foot broomstick...unless..."

"Unless what?"

"Unless he isn't even a wizard at all, just related to some. I bet he's a Squib or something, why else would he be working in a muggle school?"

As she pulled the door shut behind her, Carrie turned to offer her best friend a triumphant look.

"I know exactly why!" she exclaimed with a wide grin. "I've been up half the night figuring it out..."

"Looks like it. You look like Dad just before full moon." Teddy murmured disapprovingly, turning to leave the way down the driveway. "I told you, didn't I? Dad says we should keep our noses out of Avery's business..."

"Cleo and I saw him and her neighbor yesterday after school, and he said something that got me thinking."

Despite his grumbling, Teddy turned to look at her with interest.

"What did he say?" he asked, only to scowl when Carrie sniggered at him.

"You know, Ted, I think your dad's fighting a losing battle with you. You care as little about what he said as I do, you want to find out what's going on too!"

"I don't care what some random Squib or muggle or whatever he is gets up to in his spare time!" Teddy insisted, folding his arms defiantly across his chest and speeding up until Carrie had to almost jog to keep up with him. "And I don't care about some silly legend either! And even if there IS a magic mirror...so what, Carrie? Who even cares?"

"You do!" Carrie insisted, only to regret speaking for his brown hair suddenly darkened to a rather furious shade of crimson. The young wizard came to an abrupt halt and turned to glare at the muggle, teeth visibly clenched.

"No, Carrie, I don't." he said, face reddening a little to match his hair. "You're the one who wants to spy on Avery and get hold of that stupid mirror, not me! I'm only interested because I don't want you getting yourself into trouble! I said my dad doesn't trust me to behave myself, didn't I? Well I was lying, Carrie! It's YOU he doesn't trust!"

Silence fell over their surroundings, only disturbed by the soft rustling of leaves upon the trees that lined the pavement. Carrie felt rather as though she had been punched in the chest, or possibly slapped around the face...her cheeks certainly felt warm enough.

"That isn't true," she finally managed to whisper a long moment later, struggling to meet Teddy's furious stare. "I...I mean...your dad says I'm sensible all the time, he says...he says I'm good for you...that I...I stop you being silly..."

"I am silly, Carrie." Teddy muttered impatiently. "I'm a silly little wizard who doesn't know how to behave in muggle English class or how to use a computer. And you're silly. You're a silly little muggle who thinks her next door neighbors are better than her and that she needs a stupid mirror to make her a better person."

Once again, there was silence as he stared at her imploringly. But then Carrie gave her head a firm shake.

"I'm not silly, Teddy." she insisted, reaching to swipe at her eyes with the sleeve of her cardigan. "You just don't understand."

And Teddy huffed moodily and muttered:

"Typical!"

"Typical of what?" Carrie cried as he set off up the street again, his shoes stomping down upon the concrete as he went. "A MUGGLE?"

"YES!" Teddy shouted, throwing his hands up into the air in fury. "I bet if you did find that mirror it wouldn't work on you! You're too much of a muggle for it!"

"Well that's typical of a WIZARD!" Carrie shrieked after him, stamping her foot as her hands clenched into fists. "You and your dad and your mum! All of you! You're so...so...!"

"So what?" Teddy asked, spinning back around to stare at her challengingly at her.

"SUPERIOR!" Carrie threw at him, pointing an accusing finger. "You all think you know better than people like me!"

Teddy gave a snort of disbelief.

"Merlin, you really are dim, aren't you?" he said, staring at her with wide eyes. "Superior? Really? You wait until you hear more about Death Eaters, you'll be in for a nasty shock. Us, superior...! All we do is give you a bit of advise, and why not? We're MAGICAL, Carrie! And we're warning you about MAGIC!"

Carrie felt her temper cooling a little as she suddenly felt rather foolish for making such accusations, her gaze fell to her shoes.

"D'you know why you're such a muggle, Carrie?" Teddy went on, and she glanced up just long enough to register the hurt upon his face. "You're such a muggle because you think I'm better than you are. You think my mum's cooler than your mum and you think my dad knows more than yours does. You've convinced yourself that we're better than you. You've convinced yourself that you'd be better off being like us, being magical. And you're so bloody obsessed with it that you don't even realise! You don't realise that you're perfect just the way you are!" And with that he turned back to stomp on up the road, muttering: "Hurry up else we'll be late."

Neither child spoke a single word to the other for a full two lessons that morning, until break time came and they were filing out of their English classroom.

"Are you hungry?" Carrie mumbled rather awkwardly. "I brought crisps. You like cheese and onion, don't you?"

"Shall we go and sit out on the lawn?" Teddy mumbled back, and then lead the way towards the nearest exit without waiting for a reply.

The sun was bright and the temperature warm that morning as the two of them settled themselves down upon the grass, well away from the football game that was being played by a rowdy group of Year Ten boys. There was little conversation between them for a while, each seemingly engrossed in their snacks, before Teddy's gaze came to rest upon a figure heading across the playground to their left.

"Tell me then." the young wizard said, scrunching up his empty crisp packet into a tight ball in his fist. "What did you figure out about Avery?"

Carrie glanced past him to see Avery dragging a large garden sack across the playground and gave a vague shrug.

"Nothing." she mumbled, returning her attention to her crisps.

"I'm sorry I shouted at you." Teddy told her, and she admitted:

"I'm sorry I shouted back." Not entirely sure what to say next, she held out the packet of crisps to him and offered: "Salt and vinegar?"

"No thank you." Teddy said, nose wrinkling a little at the suggestion, and at long last she sniggered.

"Did you mean it, Ted? What you said?" she asked a moment later, expression serious once again.

"Yes..." Teddy mumbled, and she was pretty sure that he was blushing.

"I didn't." Carrie admitted, blushing a little too. "I didn't mean what I said, I mean. About you and your parents."

"I know you didn't." Teddy mumbled, reaching to pick at the blades of grass by his feet, a small smile touching his lips. "So, go on, tell me what you figured out. It can't have been nothing, you stayed up half the night."

"Why do you want to know?" Carrie asked, frowning deeply as she reached to brush a stray insect from her knee. "You said you didn't care. You said it was stupid."

"It is stupid, Carrie." the boy grinned as he spread his legs out in front of him and leant back onto the ground. Staring up at the bright blue sky he said: "But I'm stupid too."

Carrie wasn't entirely sure whether or not he was making some kind of joke, but she couldn't help but babble all about her theory all the same, she'd been bursting to tell him all day.

"Well," she said, dropping down so that she was lying, staring up at the sky next to him. "I reckon he IS a wizard. And I reckon he IS related to Death Eaters." She waited for Teddy to voice some sort of astonishment, or wonder aloud how on earth she could tell, but one glance sideways at him showed that his only reaction was to frown rather thoughtfully, so she carried on with her theory. "You say Death Eaters are obsessed with wizards being better than muggles, and I think Avery's a bit like that."

"He can't be like a Death Eater if he's dating a muggle girl." Teddy pointed out, shifting so that he could rest his head on his hands. "The Death Eaters were against muggle born wizards, let alone actual muggles."

"I know, but I mean he's just a bit like them. I think he thinks wizards are better than muggles, at least. I heard him say something to Juliette...that's his girlfriend...yesterday. He said he was going to make her perfect. And I thought about it last night, I thought what would make a muggle girl perfect...and that's obvious, isn't it?"

"No, not really."

"MAGIC, Ted!"

"You really haven't been listening to what I've been say..."

"I think Avery knows about Mildred's mirror! He wants it so that he can turn his muggle girlfriend into a witch!"

There was silence as Teddy slowly rolled onto his side, staring at Carrie with wide eyes.

"We found the book in his cupboard, after all!" Carrie pressed, grinning proudly at her own reasoning, and at last Teddy said:

"That's...actually very clever."

Carrie reached to give him a firm shove upon the shoulder, sending him tumbling backwards onto his back with a shout of laughter as she exclaimed:

"Don't sound so SHOCKED, Theodore!"

"Well it IS rather shocking, Caroline." the boy announced as the school bell began to ring shrilly from inside the main building. "Do you know what else is shocking?"

"What's that?" Carrie asked as they both scrambled to their feet and set about gathering up their belongings.

"We have History in the library and we're going to get to use COMPUTERS!"

"Oh Merlin..." Carrie muttered, snatching up her bag and slinging it hurriedly over her shoulder as Teddy bounded across the grass towards the steps, causing the Year Tens who were busy squabbling over a football to stare at him, his enthusiasm alien to them to say the least.

"Don't touch that, Ted."

"Why not?"  
"Because...just don't!"

"I'm only looking! What happens if I..."

"TED!"

Carrie Winters watched the computer screen that she was sat in front of go blank, the lights upon the box beside it simultaneously disappearing. Beside her, unplugged cable in hand, Teddy Lupin leaned to peer at the blank screen with a frown.

"Is it supposed to look like that?" he asked, and it took all of Carrie's self control to draw a deep breath and calmly tell him:

"No, it isn't."

"Oh...do you think we should call the teacher..."

"NO! I mean...no, Ted. Just...just give me the power cable."

"The what?"

Carrie reached to snatch the cable from his hand and reached blindly towards the back of the computer, fingers moving searchingly amongst the mass of cables.

"Keep an eye out for the teacher. We're not supposed to touch the back of the computers, it's against the rules." she muttered, and Teddy immediately turned in his chair to look around the room. A minute later, as Carrie's face contorted irritably as she strained to reach the correct hole, the wizard observed:

"Teacher's coming."

"Uh oh..." Carrie muttered, narrowly avoiding slipping from her chair as she made one last desperate lunge to reach the bottom of the machine, only for Teddy to cheerfully announce:

"Don't worry! I'll distract him!"

"Ted!" Carrie hissed as the boy leaped up from his seat and made a somewhat mad dash towards the approaching man, loudly announcing:

"Sir? I have a question!"

As she finally managed to slot the cable back into the computer and leant back in her chair, reaching to hit the power button before turning to watch Teddy with wide, panicked eyes, Carrie silently prayed that Teddy wasn't about to say something stupid.

"Yes, Theodore?" the teacher asked, coming to a halt and eying the enthusiastic student with a raised eyebrow.

"I have a question about...History!" Teddy decided, and Carrie clutched her hands together nervously in her lap.

"Oh?" the teacher said, and there was a lengthy pause as Teddy simply beamed up at him, mind no doubt working furiously to come up with a question. Carrie hoped it was a good one.

"It's about The Second War of the World." Teddy said, and Carrie instantly reached to bury her face in her hands, flinching when, after a bemused silence, the teacher said:

"Are you referring to the Second World War?"

"Yes, that one. I was wondering...since you mentioned it in class the other day...why did we have to have a war against Fashionism? Surely if the Germans want to dress funny we should just let them? It's not really up to us what they wear, is it Sir?"

There was yet another bemused silence before the entire class, attention drawn by Teddy's loud distraction, burst into hysterical laughter. Carrie sunk lower in her chair, feeling her face turn red with embarrassment.

"Settle down!" the teacher demanded, and as quiet slowly descended upon the class he eyed Teddy with a distinctly insulted look.

"I can assure you, Theodore," he said as Teddy simply stared at him as if oblivious to the other children's laughter. "Waging war against Fascist Germany was not even remotely funny. Thousands upon thousands of people died!"

"Well then," Teddy said, frowning deeply as behind him Carrie bit down upon her lip in horror. "It was a stupid, pointless war. Things go in and out of fashion all the time, we could have just waited a while and they might've started wearing jeans and t shirts like the rest of us."

The teacher's face appeared to be going slightly purple. Carrie couldn't help but think that this was a bad sign.

Was it her imagination, or was the man trembling? Either way, those were definitely clenched fists...

"Get out." the man hissed, as Teddy shuffled backwards a step, his mistake apparently dawning on him. "GET OUT OF THIS ROOM!"

When she met Teddy outside of the library some fifteen minutes later, Carrie found the young wizard leant up against the wall, staring at his shoes as the rest of the class filed past him, sniggering as they went. As Carrie sidled up to him, he glanced up at her briefly before continuing his inspection of his shoe laces.

"World War Two had nothing to do with clothes." he observed quietly, and, now away from the teacher's stare, Carrie allowed herself to smile.

"No, it didn't." she agreed.

"I think I've upset the teacher."

"Yes, I think you might have."

"He said when he came out here that he's going to phone my parents."

"Hmm. He might have a problem with that..."

Both children sniggered as she reached to grab hold of him by the arm and lead him off down the corridor.

"C'mon, we have to get to Geography!"

The rest of the school day passed without incident and Teddy even went so far as to seek out the History teacher at the end of classes in order to apologise. It must have been, Carrie would guess, one hell of an apology because when the door to the Humanities office reopened and Teddy stepped out into the corridor, the boy was grinning broadly and Carrie was pretty sure that she could hear the gathered teachers within chuckling cheerfully.

"How do you do that?" Carrie asked admiringly as the two of them began to make their way down the corridor.

Teddy gave a dismissive shrug.

"Mum and Dad think a great deal of manners." he recalled, and Carrie sniggered. "Gran was pretty strict with Mum, and so were the Aurors. They get trained in manners and negotiation, you know. And Dad...well...he's just...Dad."

"Your dad should be part of the UN or something, he can talk his way out of anything."

"What's the UN?"

"The United Nations."

"The what?"

"Never mind, Ted..."

They both reached to push a set of double doors open before stepping out onto the playground and turning right towards the gates.

As they approached freedom, they both spotted a familiar sight waiting for them, dressed in a grubby pair of blue jeans and a white and black striped t shirt.

"What's Cleo doing here?" Teddy asked, and Carrie felt suddenly awkward.

"Um..."

"And why is she holding a shovel?"

Teddy came to an abrupt halt, just as Cleo spotted them and, waving the shovel around somewhat crazily, began to skip over towards them.

"Oh Merlin, you didn't...!"

"Well I thought you weren't going to help me."

"I'm not!"

"Well then, what's the problem?"

"Carrie..." The boy trailed off into silence, fixing a distinctly false smile onto his face as Cleo skidded to a halt before them, grinning broadly.

"AAAAARGH!" the newcomer cried, causing a number of passing children to stare. "AVAST! Where be the treasure?"

Carrie giggled.

"You forgot your eye patch." she pointed out, turning back towards the school. As the two girls setting off walking, Teddy stared somewhat worriedly after them, Carrie called:

"Are you coming, Teddy?"

Teddy pursed his lips together in consideration, only for Carrie to turn her back on him, seemingly not very interested. The two girls had almost reached the playground before they heard him shouting after them.

"CARRIE! WAIT FOR ME!"


	12. Treasure Hunt

_Note: Dedicated to **Kuroida**, for her mention of me on her profile (which I've actually only just noticed!) And for her attempt to kick my metaphorical behind with an awesome cliffhanger! I say attempt to because I'm proud of my cliffhanger track record and refuse to be knocked off my evil perch! _

_Yes, I've taken it as a personal challenge! So, be prepared for increasingly shocking and evil cliffhangers in the following chapters! XD _

_Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any profit from this piece of writing. _

**12: Treasure Hunt**

"I think you should leave the shovel out here, Cleo."

"Why?"

"Well...it's a bit obvious, isn't it?"

"But what if we have to do some digging?"

"We won't do."

"How do you know?"

"Because I just do."

"Who invited you along, anyway?"

As she reached to push open the side entrance of the school's main building, Carrie Winters suppressed a heavy sigh.

"Just put the shovel down, Cleo." she instructed wearily. "Teddy's right."

Cleo Clancy stared at the back of Carrie's head incredulously for a moment before dropping the shovel to the ground with a loud clang, narrowly avoiding Teddy's toes. Stalking forwards so that she could lead the way into the corridor beyond, she grumbled:

"Trust you to take his side!"

The three children trooped along the corridor past the maths classrooms, Cleo leading the way at a brisk pace as she announced:

"First I think we should check whole of the ground floor."

"All of it?" Teddy muttered disbelievingly, only to promptly shut his mouth when Cleo glanced round at him irritably.

"Well obviously!" she said, rolling her eyes in Carrie's direction, leaving the other girl to glance sideways at the notice board they were passing as if deeply interested in the pieces of paper that had been pinned to it. "If there's going to be a secret underground passage it's entrance is going to be on the ground floor!"

"How do you know it's an underground passage?" Teddy wanted to know, ignoring Carrie's sharp elbow in his ribs.

"Don't you know anything?" Cleo snorted, tossing her head impatiently, messy dark hair promptly falling into her eyes. As she reached to tuck it back behind her ear, she informed the apparent novice: "Treasure is always hidden in underground passages. I've seen it on TV!"

"Well if the TV said it, it must be true." Teddy muttered, only for Carrie to snap:

"If you can't stop being such a spoil sport you can just go home."

"But this is stupid..." Teddy began, only to trail off when both girls turned to scowl at him. "Fine," he mumbled, folding his arms firmly across his chest. "It's not on the ground floor, it's upstairs in that cupboard we hid in the other day."

Both Carrie and Cleo halted in their tracks.

"How do you know that?" Carrie wanted to know. "I know we saw Avery in there but we never saw anything interesting inside." But before he could reply, Cleo asked:

"Do you want to find this treasure or not? One moment you say it's stupid and then in the next breath you say you know how to find it!"

Carrie pursed her lips together worriedly as she watched Teddy's gaze fall to the floor, he reached to scratch the back of his neck awkwardly.

"I...I do want to find it...if...if Carrie does..." he mumbled rather uncertainly, and Carrie ignored Cleo's bemused frown in order to grab hold of him by the arm.

"C'mon Ted," she said, giving his arm a gentle tug to get him walking again. "Let's see if you're right. It's just a bit of fun, there's nothing to be worried about."

"Just as long as there aren't any mummies or zombies down there!" Cleo pointed out cheerfully, letting out a distinctly cackle-like laugh.

"Try and keep your voice down," Carrie suggested as, arm in arm, she and Teddy took the lead and led the way towards the staircase at the end of the corridor. "We don't want the teachers wondering what we're up to."

"Or our dear friend Richard...god...if I see him I'm going to just...just...urgh!"

"No," Carrie agreed quietly, grip upon Teddy's arm tightening. "I'd rather we didn't bump into him either."

When the trio arrived in the corridor outside of the Headmistress' office, the could hear the soft hum of conversation coming from the other end of the corridor which led to the staff room. The light inside the Headmistress' office was out.

"They must be having a staff meeting." Cleo observed as they sidled up to the cupboard door, leaning back against the wall in a distinctly shifty manner.

"Somebody needs to keep watch." Carrie decided, voice dropping to a whisper, and Cleo instantly announced:

"Teddy can do it."

Recalling the last time that Teddy had been the one to keep an eye out for teachers, Carrie visibly cringed.

"I don't think that's a good idea..."

"Well I can't do it!" Cleo insisted, ignoring Teddy's:

"Shhh!"

"I'm not even supposed to be here." the dark haired girl reminded the others, and Carrie felt a swell of disappointment when logic forced her to conclude:

"Then I better do it."

And so it was that Carrie Winters watched her two best friends disappear inside of the cupboard, leaving her to stand alone in the corridor, her mind racing in wonder as to what they might find.

Perhaps, she mused, there was some sort of trapdoor...

But perhaps not, because neither she nor Teddy had come across one the last time they had had a look around...

But they hadn't moved all of the boxes and the brooms and buckets. Who knew what might be underneath of them?

And then, as her mind began to drift to thoughts of Mildred's mirror and the possibility that by the end of the day she might just be a witch, a terrible thought occurred to Carrie:

What if Cleo found the mirror before she did?

Carrie instantly reached to pull the cupboard door open, flooding the cramped space with light and eliciting a small gasp of surprise from both Cleo and Teddy, the latter of whom was busy moving cardboard boxes away from one corner as the former shone a large torch searchingly at the floor.

"Have you found anything yet?" Carrie asked them hurriedly as they both turned to look at her questioningly, causing Cleo to let out a huge sigh and complain:

"You scared the bloody life out of me! I thought you were a teacher or something!"

"Nothing yet." Teddy confirmed as he turned to pick up the last box, stumbling a little as he heaved it up and off of the floor.

As Cleo leaned to shine the torch down at the revealed floorboards, Carrie squeezed herself into the cupboard, letting the door swing shut behind her.

In the dim torchlight, the three children all leant forward to squint downwards. They found themselves staring at a large, square plank of wood, hinged on one side with a small metal ring in the middle that looked distinctly like a handle of one form or another.

There was a slightly stunned silence.

"Oh. My. GOD!" Cleo shrieked a few seconds later, making both Carrie and Teddy jump, the young wizard narrowly avoiding tripping backwards into the boxes that he had so carefully stacked in the opposite corner. "It's...REAL!"

"SHHHHHH!" Teddy demanded as he reached to grab hold of Carrie's shoulder in an attempt to steady himself. "Half the staff will hear you!"

Cleo seemingly wasn't listening, or if she was she was entirely unconcerned about teachers, because she was too busy dropping into a crouch in order to examine the trapdoor more closely.

"It doesn't look very old or forgotten." she observed, brow crinkling at the thought. "The hinges aren't even a little bit rusty."

"Let's open it!" Carrie cried, clasping her hands together and rocking up and down upon the balls of her feet excitedly. "Go on, open it!"

"Move back, Cleo." Teddy insisted, attempting to sidle his way up to the girl who had immediately reached to grasp hold of the handle. "I'll open it. Just in case."

"In case of what?" Cleo snorted as she shuffled backwards to let him get nearer.

"Just...in case." Teddy mumbled, and Carrie took an eager step forward to watch as he reached to grasp hold of the trapdoor's handle, pausing for a brief moment as if not entirely sure what he was about to do was wise.

"Go on, Teddy!" Carrie told him, leaning so far forward that her chin was practically resting upon the boy's shoulder. "Open it!"

Teddy's grip upon the handle tightened and, gritting his teeth with effort, he gave the trapdoor a firm tug.

It moved surprisingly quietly for a secret trapdoor, and as soon as Teddy had opened it wide, revealing the darkness within, Cleo leant to shine the torch down into the passage below.

As the trio squinted down the hole, Carrie found herself holding her breath in anticipation of what she was going to see.

The trapdoor appeared to lead down into a tiny, wooden paneled room. Carrie imagined that if she were to stand down there she could touch the walls on either side without fully extending her arms. At the other end of the room, they could just about make out a narrow spiral staircase disappearing down into the dark.

"I'm going first!" Cleo announced, reaching to push the hair from her eyes and making to step forward, only for Teddy to grab hold of her by the arm.

"I'm going first." the young wizard insisted, dropping down and sliding his feet forwards so that they dangled over the edge. When Cleo opened her mouth to argue with him, he firmly murmured: "Just in case."

Cleo huffed in irritation.

"I don't know why you had to let him come." she told Carrie as Teddy began to lower himself downwards, seemingly unconcerned that he would overhear her. "He's going to ruin everything!"

Carrie didn't bother to reply, she was much too busy watching intently as Teddy finally let go of the edge he was clinging to, dropping down to land upon the floor with a soft thud.

"Here, hold the torch." Cleo instructed, thrusting the object downwards for him to take, narrowly avoiding hitting him over the head with it. "I need both hands..."

Teddy had barely accepted the object before Carrie had thrown herself downwards onto the floor, pushing her feet down the hole before Cleo could move a muscle.

"My turn!" she announced cheerily, ignoring Cleo's furious muttering as she dropped down the hole after Teddy.

The two of them stood, one just behind the other, staring around their cramped surroundings, Teddy shining the torch across the walls and the ceiling. As he began to brief inspection of the floorboards, above them Cleo seemed to be losing what was left of her patience.

"Move up and make some room!" she hissed down at them. "What do you think I am, a bloody stick insect?"

Carrie reached to give Teddy a gentle prod in the back to get him moving, but the boy didn't move a muscle, he was too busy staring down at the floor in front of him.

"Carrie," he whispered, pointing downwards with his free hand. "Footprints."

Carrie shuffled sideways, rising up onto her tiptoes to look over Teddy's shoulder. True to his word, she found the heavy layer of dust upon the floor had been disturbed by footsteps leading both to and from the staircase beyond. The sight made Carrie's stomach clench uncomfortably as she attempted to decide just how long they had been there.

What if somebody else had already found the mirror?

"Hurry UP!" Cleo cried, and Teddy began to lead the way towards the stairs. Carrie reached to grasp hold of the back of his t shirt so that she would not lose him in the dark. After a moment there came a soft thudding noise behind them as Cleo dropped down into the room. Carrie couldn't help but give a little jump at the noise, and Cleo immediately sniggered.

"Are you scared, Carrie?"

"No. Of course not!"

"I think she might need to hold your hand, Teddy."

"I do not!"

"Shh!"

They had reached the stairs and as Teddy slowly stepped down onto the first step it creaked in protest.

"Keep your eyes on your feet." he told the two girls as he took another cautious step. "The steps are very narrow."

As the three children made their slow descent of the winding staircase, Cleo seemingly grew bored of the lack of conversation.

"What do you reckon this mirror looks like, then?" she asked as she took another wobbly step, one hand on Carrie's shoulder in front of her.

"Gold," Carrie immediately replied, grip upon Teddy's t shirt tightening as she stumbled a little. "I think it's gold and shiny...and covered in jewels...OH!"

At the girl's small shout of alarm as she tripped, Teddy froze, flinching in anticipation of a tumble, only for her to manage to regain her balance, having thrown her arms around his neck.

"Sorry Ted..." Carrie mumbled, glad that it was dark so that neither he nor Cleo could see her flush red with embarrassment. Cleo's question had left her mind to wander to the countless dreams that she had had of Mildred's mirror, of magic, of being a witch...

"Give me your hand." Teddy told her as she disentangled her arms from around him, and when Cleo sniggered again the young wizard shot her a scowl over his shoulder before taking hold of his friend firmly by the hand. And with that, they set off down the stairs again.

Carrie tried to count how many times the staircase spiraled, but staring at her feet soon became disorientating and she wasn't even sure at what number of spirals she had lost count.

When they did finally reach the bottom, the sudden change in motion made Carrie's head spin, and yet she stared, unblinkingly in wonder at the room they had just stepped into.

It was a long, thin room with a low ceiling and a series of grates built into the ceiling from which dim rays of light seeped into the darkness. Wooden paneled like the room above it, there was a distinct smell of damp earth hanging in the air.

"Aha!" Cleo cried, making Carrie jump again. "I TOLD you it was going to be underground!"

There was little in the room, save a few rickety looking shelves running along the walls, littered with the stumps of wax candles long silence burnt out. Carrie's gaze roamed searchingly around until her eyes came to rest upon a small, sturdy table that was set against the back wall.

And it was at that precise moment that she noticed the box that had been placed upon the tabletop.

All misgivings instantly thrown to the wind, Carrie let go of Teddy's hand and dashed across the room towards the table, footfalls echoing upon the floor that creaked in protest at the sudden movement.

This was it, she thought wildly as she heard Cleo dash after her. This was it, the moment that was going to change her life forever...

"STOP!"

At the sound of Teddy shouting after them, both Carrie and Cleo skidded to an abrupt halt. Heart pounding furiously in her chest, Carrie slowly turned to offer the boy a questioning look.

"You should look where you're going." Teddy told the girls sternly, causing Cleo to scowl at him, and he shone the torch towards their feet. Carrie turned and looked down to find what seemed to be a thin line drawn across the floor in white chalk, as if the room were being partitioned.

As she too stared down at the line, Cleo sucked in a sharp breath.

"Wow!" she cried as Teddy came to stand just behind the girls. "This really IS magic!" The self-proclaimed witch turned around to face the young wizard, informing him: "It's a magical boundary. Witches have been using chalk to draw them for centuries. It's very powerful, magic like that, 'cause it's old. Bet you didn't know that, did you?"

Carrie had to bite down upon her tongue to stop herself sniggering as Teddy managed to look mildly impressed.

"No," the wizard murmured as Cleo grinned at him. "I can't say I did know that..."

Cleo gave a soft snort.

"I bet you don't even believe in magic!" she accused as she turned back to gaze towards the table ahead of them.

It was then Teddy's turn to snort as he and Carrie exchanged a knowing glance.

"Of course I don't." he scoffed, battling against a smile. "How old d'you think I am? Three? You'll be telling me about the...the pixies and the Veela next! I just saw something on the floor, I thought it might've been a rope or something."

Cleo once again turned to stare at him, looking positively disgusted by his heathen attitude.

"What the bloody hell is a Veela?" she wanted to know, and for the briefest moment Teddy's facade faltered before he shrugged and said:

"How the hell should I know?"

Cleo shot Carrie an exasperated look before dropping to her knees to squint down at the line upon the floor, nose practically touching the floorboards.  
"Hmm..." she said, as Teddy sidled up to Carrie and the two of them exchanged a snigger. "I think I've read about something like this before..."

"She's right about one thing." Teddy muttered to Carrie under his breath so that their companion could not hear him.

"What's that?" Carrie whispered back as Cleo shuffled until she was lying flat upon her belly, staring at the line.

"Old magic is powerful. I mean, she must be right...Dumbledore must have been ancient!"

Carrie pursed her lips together against another snigger before asking:

"What about the chalk line? Is she right about that being magic?"

Teddy gave a shrug.

"I don't know...I mean wizards draw magic lines, yes, but...not in chalk. That would be stupid, wouldn't it? It'd just fade and get smudged..."

"Do they use permanent marker pens?" Carrie wanted to know, and Teddy rolled his eyes at her.

"Well obviously not, Carrie, they use their wands. Like when Dad set protective charms around the house last year."

"I was joking, Ted." Carrie turned back to regard the line with a heavy sigh. "This is silly." she observed, eying Cleo wearily. "And you know...I don't think this can be magic. The person who put the mirror here was a muggle."

"You don't know that." Teddy mumbled uncomfortably, and she told him:

"Of course I do. He was headmaster of Oakhurst!"

"They've got a wizard as a caretaker, why not a headmaster? He was descended from a witch, wasn't he? And who's to say he drew the line? It's been down here ages, anybody could have done it..."

"I doubt it, Ted."

And with that, Carrie drew a deep breath and, before Teddy could protest, took a step forward...

She heard Teddy's sharp intake of breath and Cleo immediately stopping mumbling to herself, head snapping upwards to stare at Carrie with wide eyes...

Nothing happened.

"Very powerful magic, clearly!" Carrie exclaimed a moment later, and Cleo scrambled to her feet, letting out a sigh of relief.

Carrie's amusement was somewhat snuffed out by the realization that she was now even closer to the table.

And there were no magical barriers in her way. Indeed, there were not any barriers of any kind or description whatsoever.

Breaking out into a sprint, Carrie dashed forward, before coming to another skidding halt in front of the table. She was just reaching to grasp hold of the box, ready to fling back the lid in triumph, when she heard a loud thudding noise, accompanied by a groan. The muggle spun around to look back, and her hand flew to her mouth in alarm as Cleo let out a shriek of laughter.

And there, just behind the line, flat on his back lay Teddy, one hand reaching gingerly to rub his head as he attempted to heave himself up into a sitting position.

"Must've tripped..." the young wizard mumbled in embarrassment.

"Are you okay?" Carrie called over to him, and him hastily scrambled to his feet, wobbling a little as he straightened up and insisted:

"Of course I am!" As he reached to brush dust from the front of his jeans, Carrie turned her attention back to the box.

"Wait for me!" Cleo cried as she hurried over, and she had barely reached Carrie's elbow before the other girl had reached to pull open the box...

It was lined with pale, cream coloured silk and set carefully inside was a drawstring pouch made of rich black velvet.

Both girls stared down at it keenly, before exchanging a small glance.

"You open it." Cleo whispered, eyes alight with excitement. "This was your idea in the first place."

And so Carrie slowly reached into the box and drew out the velvet pouch, her heard hammering in her chest.

This is it, this is actually it...

She reached, hands trembling in anticipation as she carefully pulled the pouch open, slipping her fingers inside.

Her fingertips met something smooth and she reached to grasp hold of it before pulling it free from it's velvet casing.

And so it was that Carrie Winters first laid eyes upon the Mirror of Mildred Marchbrook.

Years later, when she looked back on the moment that she was sure would change her life forever, Carrie had always concluded that, considering the great anticipation that she had felt, the initial revealing moment had all been a little disappointing. She had been expecting dazzling diamonds and shining gold and silver, a frame encrusted with glimmering jewels, radiant rubies, elaborate emeralds, sparkling sapphires...

The reality had been a rather scruffy looking hand held mirror in a battered pale wooden frame, the handle chipped at the bottom.

In all honesty, it had been a bit disappointing to say the least.

Carrie stared at her reflection, watching the disappointment dawn upon her face as beside her, Cleo simply said:

"It looks like a piece of junk to me."

But then, as Cleo turned to call the same observation back to Teddy, Carrie suddenly caught sight of flickering movement upon the mirror's surface. The girl held it closer to her face, squinting searchingly...

_Must be imagining things_, she thought to herself, reaching to tap the mirror's surface experimentally with her finger. _I wonder how it works...if it works...I certainly don't feel magical. _

_But what does magical feel like, anyway?_

"Carrie?"

_Maybe there's a magic word, maybe you have to do something..._

"Carrie?"

_Make me a witch, make me a witch, make me..._

"Carrie? Hello?"

Carrie managed to drag her gaze away from the mirror in order to fix Cleo with a questioning look.

"I reckon he must've hit his head pretty hard." the dark haired girl said, jabbing a finger back in Teddy's direction, and Carrie turned to see the boy had turned his back on them, one hand clamped to the back of his head.

"Maybe I should walk him home." Carrie said worriedly. "Besides, his Gran will be waiting for him, I bet she'll be worried if he's any later."

"Stick the junk in your bag then, so we can get out of here." Cleo said, waving a dismissive hand at the unimpressive object held in Carrie's hand.

And so Carrie carefully put the mirror away into her bag, the end of the handle sticking out at the top because it didn't quite fit perfectly, and the three children set off back up the spiral staircase, Teddy lagging behind the girls as he continued to rub the back of his head with a frown.

"Does it really hurt?" Carrie asked worriedly, reaching back to grab hold of him by the elbow when he stumbled on a step. "You're not seeing double or anything, are you?"  
"No..." Teddy mumbled, still very much frowning. "It's just...well..." he glanced past her at Cleo, who had charge of the torch. "Never mind, it's fine."

The walk back up seemed to take even longer than their stumbling progression down the stairs, and when they finally reached the little room at the top and set about climbing back out of the trapdoor Carrie's legs were aching in protest. As Cleo began to complain that the mirror was much too boring to warrant such an impressive hiding place, she quite forgot to keep her voice down as Carrie pushed the trapdoor shut and the three of them set about re-stacking the boxes over the top. Once satisfied that they would be leaving the cupboard exactly as they had found it, Cleo switched off the torch and reached to open the cupboard door.

"I don't see why somebody would go to all that trouble," the girl grumbled as the three of them filed out into the corridor, "just for a rubbishy old..." she trailed off into silence, coming to such an abrupt halt that Carrie almost walked right into the back of her.

And there, stood just to their right, seemingly in the middle of mopping the corridor floor clean, was Richard Avery, staring in astonishment at the three children, who all stared in astonishment right back at him.


	13. The Face In The Mirror

_Note: Thank you so much to my lovely reviewers! You really do make my day! I estimate that there will be around four or five chapters left of this story! Much shorter than Meet the Lupins, I'm afraid, but it's just turned out that way! Since I have the rest of this fic entirely planned, I may well start to consider another sequel! So once again, if anybody would like to suggest a title for the third "Meet the..." story, be my guest! (Assuming you all want a sequel, that is...!)_

_**This chapter is dedicated to the 100****th**** reviewer of this story!** Currently as I write this there have been 99 reviews, so whoever reviews first...this chapter is for you!_

_Oh, and the Cliffhanger Wars, as Kuroida so rightly names them, are still raging. You have been warned!_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any profit from this piece of writing._

**13: The Face In The Mirror**

As she stared wide eyed at the man who appeared to have caught her and her friends red-handed, Carrie Winters couldn't help but reach to grip hold of her bag, acutely aware of it's precious cargo that was blatantly on show. When Richard Avery simply gaped at the three children, his face visibly tinged red, Carrie shuffled back a step, rather wishing that she could ask Teddy exactly what they should do.

The caretaker reached to lean the mop he was holding up against the wall, eyes never leaving the trio, and as he looked them up and down searchingly, Carrie drew in a deep, petrified breath.

Could he see the mirror? Could he see she had taken it?

The young girl was in absolutely no doubt that he could. The certainty scared her. One hand still gripping hold of her bag, she reached back with the other, fumbling, searching...

The pounding of her heart seemed to steady somewhat as she found Teddy's hand and the young wizard silently laced his fingers through her own, his grip reassuringly tight.

Avery took a couple of steps towards them, gaze locked upon Carrie's bag, and Carrie heard Teddy draw in a sharp breath, she dared a glance sideways at him and found a distinctly neutral, mildly polite expression upon his face. It reminded Carrie of the look Remus had worn the night he had casually blasted his way into the Goyles' house to negotiate Carrie's safe release from her captors. It was the look of a diplomat preparing to dig his way out of a deep hole. But Carrie couldn't help but feel that even Remus would struggle at a moment such as this...

And so it was that a second later, when further down the corridor the staffroom door had been pushed open to reveal a mass exodus of Oakhurst staff, Cleo's sudden barked instruction seemed to Carrie to be the most sensible plan of action.

"RUN!"

As she spun around, yanking Teddy's hand after her, Carrie set off down the corridor at a sprint, Cleo just in front of her. Neither muggles nor wizard dared to glance back to see Avery's response to their escape as they burst through the double doors at the end of the corridor and fled down the stairs, footfalls echoing in their ears as they went. Stumbling down a second flight of stairs, they turned on their heels and raced back down through the maths department, eyes fixated upon the door at the end of the corridor that would lead them outside. It was only when Cleo was forced to slow down so as not to slam face first into the door that Carrie and Teddy finally glanced over their shoulders to see if they were being followed.

"He's...not there!" Carrie panted, feeling relief wash over her as Cleo flung open the doors and Teddy gave his best friend's arm a firm yank to get her moving again. "Why...isn't he...?"

"Who bloody cares?" Cleo cried, face flushed pink as she darted outside and stooped to snatch up the shovel that she had abandoned there some while earlier. "I don't care why he didn't chase us, I'm just glad he didn't!"

"Would've looked bad in front of the other staff." Teddy pointed out, at last letting go of Carrie's hand so that he could reach to run a relieved hand through his hair. "Sweet Merlin!" he cried, immediately flinching at his slip of the tongue, but at that precise moment Cleo exclaimed:

"Bloody hell! That was quite something, wasn't it?"

"Well that's one way to describe it." Teddy muttered, and he shot Carrie a distinctly accusing look.

"What was that for?" Carrie asked indignently as the three of them set off towards the school gates, Teddy's pace fast and distinctly moody.

"I told you it was a bad idea." the young wizard muttered darkly, glancing at Carrie's bag with a scowl. Carrie's grip upon the bag tightened as Cleo said:

"Oh don't be such a kill joy! What, did the big scary caretaker frighten you?" The dark haired girl let out a shout of laughter, bounding on ahead of the other two who once again exchanged a glance.

"Did he scare you, Carrie?" Teddy wanted to know, expression still bleak, and Carrie swallowed the lump in her throat and tried to shrug carelessly.

"No, of course not!" she insisted, though she knew it was a downright lie.

Teddy knew it too.

"Well that's too bad." he grumbled as they finally passed through the gates. "Because even if he did, you're not nearly scared enough."

Teddy's words had sent a shiver down Carrie's spine and she had continued to feel unnerved when they bid goodbye to Cleo and set off home in a distinctly frosty silence. Carrie did not hear a single word from her friend until they had reached the bottom of the Lupins' driveway.

"Oh bugger..." the boy muttered, and Carrie had barely turned to look at him questioningly when a furious voice made her jump.

"THEODORE REMUS LUPIN! Just where do you think you've been? I've been waiting for near on an HOUR!"

At the sight of his grandmother stalking down the driveway towards him, her dark eyes wide with anger, Teddy shoved his hands into his pockets and fixed the pavement with a stare.

"Sorry, Gran..."

"Sorry? I've been worried sick! I didn't know what to think!"

"I've only been at school, Gran..."

"Yes, and school ends at three o'clock! Just how long does it take for you to walk home, I wonder? Not a whole hour, I'm sure! I left a cauldron on the stove, it'll all be spoilt!"

"Sorry, Gran." Teddy mumbled again, as Carrie watched the witch let out an exasperated sigh.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry!" the witch tutted as she reached to push a loose strand of iron grey hair behind her ear. "You know, Teddy, you're beginning to sound just like your mother!"

"Have you heard from Mum and Dad yet?" Teddy asked, grasping the opportunity to change the subject.

"Not yet, no. They've barely been gone two days."

"Suppose...what's for tea?" Offering Carrie a fleeting wave, Teddy set off up the driveway, his grandmother at his side, her fury seemingly forgotten as talk turned to iced buns and cheese and pickle sandwiches.

Carrie was glad to find that as she shuffled into her hallway a moment later, kicking off her shoes by the door, she could hear the muffled sound of her mother talking on the phone and her brothers were nowhere to be seen. She escaped upstairs with her bag without being quizzed about her late arrival, and as she shut the door firmly behind her and went to sit cross-legged upon her bed, Carrie's excitement was renewed afresh. Setting her bag down beside her, she reached to draw out the mirror it it's velvet casing. As she slid the looking glass free from it's black shroud, the muggle found herself feeling almost as excited as she had done when she had first laid eyes upon the object. She spent a few minutes simple turning the mirror around in her hands, running her fingers around the frame, gripping hold of the handle. Then she leant back to lean against the wall, holding the mirror up to her face and staring into it searchingly.

"I saw something, earlier." she found herself whispering to her reflection, moving the mirror closer to her face until her breath began to leave a misty sheen upon its surface. "I saw something, I'm sure of it...something or...or someone..."

It was at that precise moment that she noticed her reflection seeming to shift, to alter, and Carrie hurriedly reached to wipe the mist away from the surface with the sleeve of her cardigan, biting her lip in anticipation. And then, as she drew her sleeve away from the mirror, Carrie found the breath hitching in her throat in astonishment. For there, staring back at her from the mirror's surface was not her own face, but somebody else entirely.

She was a ghostly pale woman with a thin, pointy face and large, dark eyes. She had thin, delicate looking lips that curved ever so slightly into a smile and long, dark ringlets framed her face.

Carrie stared with wide eyes at the woman, heart pounding as she managed to whisper:

"Mildred...?"

And Mildred Marchbrook's smile broadened as she gave a single nod.

So entranced by the sight before her was she, that Carrie barely registered the sound of pounding footsteps upon the stairs outside of her room. She found herself mirroring the witch's smile as she drew a deep breath and asked:

"Can...can you hear..."

BANG!

Carrie narrowly avoiding throwing the mirror up into the air as she jumped, hitting her head hard upon the wall before her as the mirror fell into her lap. One hand shooting to grasp hold of her throbbing head, Carrie looked over at the boy who had just burst through her bedroom door with a scowl.

"Don't burst into my room like that! What do you want, anyway?" she asked Thomas irritably as her brother offered her a smirk.

"Mum says you have to do the washing up before dinner." the boy informed her, and she waved an impatient hand at him.

"Fine, fine. Get out of my room!"

"Somebody's a bit touchy today!" Thomas observed, only for her sister to glare furiously at him. "Alright then, don't get your knickers in a twist! Tim and I are going to the shops in a minute, do you want to come?"

"No." Carrie informed him bluntly, and he grinned widely at her.

"Good. You walk too slow anyway." he said, and with that he turned and sauntered out of the room, pulling the door shut behind him.

As she listened to her brother's thumping retreat downstairs, Carrie let out a sigh of relief, before hastily snatching up the mirror again.

Mildred Marchbrook was nowhere to be seen.

"Hello...?" Carrie whispered, reaching with a careful finger to tap upon the glass. "Hello? Are you still there?"

When after a further five minutes of staring at her own frowning reflection failed to make Mildred reappear, Carrie finally gave up, setting the mirror down upon the bed beside her with a soft groan.

Why did big brothers have to ruin everything?

And why wouldn't Mildred come back?

Carrie wished that Teddy's parents had not gone away to France, that way she could simply go and knock on their door, ask them to tell her everything and anything they knew about magic mirrors. She was pretty sure that they would be able to tell her something useful.

Carrie's gaze came to rest upon her bedside table, upon which she had abandoned the letter that Remus had left for her just before he and Tonks had left. Sidling along the bed so that she could reach to retrieve the envelope, staring thoughtfully down at it as she turned it over in her hands, Carrie wondered if she might send them a letter.

She supposed she ought not do. After all, surely they had enough to think about themselves without adding her wondering to the mix. And Remus had said that she was to write _if anything goes wrong whilst you and Teddy are at school_...

But didn't Richard Avery knowing that she had the mirror constitute something going wrong at school? Not that Carrie had any intention of admitting this fact to either Remus or Tonks, not after she had ignored Remus' warnings about the caretaker. She would much rather skip that part of the story entirely.

Carrie went to the little desk beside the window and rummaged through the drawers until she found a couple of sheets of pale blue writing paper and a pen.

_Dear Remus_, she began in the neatest handwriting that she could manage, before sitting back in her chair and staring down at the paper blankly, wondering quite what she should say. Eventually she decided to get straight to the point, she only had a couple of sheets of paper after all.

_I've found Mildred Marchbrook's mirror_, she wrote, deciding it best to fail to acknowledge Teddy's part in the discovery. _I know you said that there was no such thing as a magic mirror that could turn a muggle into a witch, and maybe you are still right. I have looked into the mirror, but I do not feel any different. How do I know whether or not I am a witch now? There is definitely something magical about this mirror. Sometimes when I look into it I can see the face of a young woman with pretty dark eyes and wavy hair. I think she can hear me, Remus, when I speak. I asked her if she was Mildred and she nodded her head. Can it really be her after all these years? Is it really possible for somebody to live inside a mirror? Even after they have died? _

_I hope that you and Dora are having a nice holiday. Teddy and I are doing well at school._

_Love_

_Carrie_

It took some ten minutes of rattling the box of treats that she had bought and shouting out of the window before Carrie managed to coax Remus' owl Godric out of the Lupins' attic window and into her bedroom, and a further ten minutes to persuade him to allow her to attach the letter to his leg. When she finally watched the bird soar out of the window and up into the sky, Carrie found herself wondering exactly how long it would take for him to reach Southern France. She hoped it would not take long.

"Carrie? Come downstairs and get this washing up done! It'll be dinner time soon!"

At the sound of her mother calling to her up the stairs, Carrie hastily stored the cat treats away in the drawer of the desk and went to slip the mirror back into it's case before placing it under her pillow.

That night when she went to bed, Carrie took a torch with her so that she could sit under the covers and look at the mirror again. Lying flat upon her stomach, feet upon her pillow and duvet over her head, the muggle lay staring down at the mirror, frustrated when her own face stared back at her.

"Hello?" she whispered once again, feet fidgeting impatiently against the pillow. "Hello, Mildred? It's...it's me..." When it occurred to her that she had never mention exactly who me was, she found herself telling her reflection: "My name is Caroline. Caroline Winters...I'm...I'm a muggle. I...I'd very much like to be a witch..." She sighed heavily, only to snatch up the mirror and scramble back out from under the covers when she heard a soft knocking upon her door.

"Night, Carrie love." she heard her mother call softly, and so the child shoved the mirror back under her pillow and called:

"Night, Mum!"

Despite having the mirror to puzzle over, Carrie fell asleep just a few minutes later. The excitement of the day had worn her out and she had suddenly come over feeling desperately tired. She slept deeply, and did not dream for some time, until a soft, faraway whisper penetrated her slumber.

_Caroline Winters..._

Carrie became vaguely aware of the soft mattress beneath her and the warm duvet shifting as she stirred in her sleep.

_Do you want to be magical, Caroline Winters? _

At the sound of the ghostly question, Carrie felt just conscious enough to mumble:

"Yes..."

For a long moment there was silence, and the child was just drifting back into a deep sleep when the voice whispered:

_Wake up, Caroline Winters. _

Carrie's eyes snapped wide open and she sat bolt upright in bed, running her eyes searchingly around the dark room. Finding it empty, she found her hand instinctively reaching under her pillow to retrieve the mirror, the other groping around for the torch that she had left upon the bedside table. Flicking on the flashlight, Carrie raised the mirror up before her face.

And there, once again, was Mildred Marchbrook, the same small smile upon her pale face.

When Teddy Lupin knocked on his best friend's door the following morning, ready to start their last day at summer school before the weekend, he found that it was not Carrie who opened the door, but her brother Timothy.

"She hasn't even come down to breakfast yet." the older boy informed the wizard, stepping aside to let Teddy inside. "You can go up, if you want."

Frowning deeply, Teddy mumbled thanks and headed for the stairs. It was deeply strange, he thought, for Carrie not to be ready for school on time. In fact it was usually he who made them late.

He paused outside of her bedroom to knock upon the door, calling her name through the wood.

Inside, Carrie Winters was midway through composing another letter, but she hastily finished the sentence she was writing and stuffed the letter into the drawer of her desk, next to the cat treats, just in time to turn to face Teddy when he slowly pushed the door open so that he could peer inside.

"You're not even DRESSED yet!" the young wizard exclaimed, eying her floral pyjamas in surprise, and Carrie found herself stifling a yawn as she hurried over to her wardrobe to search for clothes.

"Well..." the muggle mumbled rather evasively, "I overslept."

She didn't want to tell her friend any more than that. She did not want to admit that the reason she had slept through her alarm probably had a lot to do with the fact that she had spent the majority of the night huddled under her duvet, having a whispered conversation with the reflection of a long since deceased witch.

Not that it had been much of a conversation, really, more of a monologue. Indeed, Carrie had not heard Mildred's voice since it had awoken her from her sleep. Instead, the witch's reflection had simply stared at her as the child babbling about anything and everything that she could think of. Carrie had marveled at the little smiles, the nods, the giggles...

But she didn't want to tell Teddy any of that. It was, Carrie supposed, exactly the sort of thing that usually she would want to tell her best friend all about. But on this occasion, Carrie felt compelled to keep Mildred entirely secret. Entirely to herself.

"You look really tired." Teddy observed as she yanked a pale lemon summer dress free from a hanger and, flinging it haphazardly over her arm, went in search of a pair of socks.

"I'll be down in a minute." the muggle assured him as she yanked open a drawer and made a grab for a pair of white socks, frowning to see that one of them had a hole in the toe. "Go and snatch some toast from the table before my brothers eat it all, 'else I'll have no breakfast."

Left alone to hurriedly get dressed and drag a brush hastily through her hair, Carrie wondered if Teddy would mention the drama of the afternoon beforehand, or if he would ask her about Mildred's mirror. She rather hoped not, for not only did she want to keep Mildred and the mirror all to herself, she also could not stand Teddy's bad moods whenever the topic of conversation headed that way.

Once ready to leave, her gaze came to rest upon the desk drawer into which she had stuffed the letter that she had been writing to Remus. A second letter. She was in two minds as to whether or not to send it, not keen to bombard Teddy's parents with letters whilst they were on holiday. At any rate she could decide whether or not to send it later, after school. With any luck Godric might have returned by then.

That day at Oakhurst, Carrie drifted through her classes much as she had done prior to the start of summer school, daydreaming, wondering, concentration waning as she sat and stared blankly towards the front of classrooms, consumed by thoughts of magic.

The only difference, she later supposed, was that instead of wondering about the Lupins, she wondered about Mildred Marchbrook instead. By the end of the day she had found herself with a long list of wonderings she might add to her letter to Remus, and again she hoped that Godric would be back in the Lupins' attic, or perhaps waiting in her bedroom with Remus' reply.

She was glad not to catch sight of Richard Avery that day, nor have Teddy make any mention of the day before, until they were busy pushing their chairs under their desk and slinging their bags upon their shoulders, ready for the walk home.

"I've not seen Avery today, have you?" the young wizard commented as Carrie reached to pull her hair free from the strap of her bag.

"No, I haven't." Carrie told him, turning to lead the way towards the classroom door as the rest of the class flooded out into the corridor, all chattering excitedly about the start of the weekend. "And I'm glad. Just imagine what it would be like if we were to see him!"

Teddy cringed at the thought as they passed through the doorway and headed down the corridor. He made no further mention of Avery, instead pausing when they reached the double doors that led towards the exit to tell his friend: "Wait here for a moment, won't you? I need the toilet, I won't be a minute."

And so it was that Carrie stopped to lean back against the wall, eying a lurid display of Year Eight's efforts in art class as Teddy turned and headed back up the corridor, past their classroom and around the corner to the boys' toilets.

Just as Teddy rounded the corner, Carrie heard the doors to her left being pushed open, and when she turned to see who was entering the corridor she immediately shrunk back, flattening herself against the wall as if it might make her a little less visible.

Richard Avery shuffled through the door, wheeling a mop and bucket along behind him, careful not to slop water and soap suds upon the floor as he went. Carrie held her breath, desperate not to make a sound, and she felt relieved when the caretaker seemingly walked straight past her as if she was not there at all. She bit down upon her lip in an effort not to breath until he had walked the length of the corridor and rounded the corner as Teddy had done a moment earlier. Carrie wondered if Teddy would feel quite as petrified should he cross paths with the caretaker too.

The summer school students were quick to escape the building, and so Carrie found herself waiting for Teddy in an eerie silence. It felt strange, she thought idly, to be stood in the school when it felt so empty. It was...unsettling.

The muggle began to tap her foot impatiently, gaze back upon the bizarre art display, a mas of bright colours slopped upon paper and proudly signed in thick black marker pens. She sighed, reaching to lay her hands flat against the wall behind her, the cool paintwork pleasant in the stuffy corridor air, and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Just how long did it take to use the toilet?

She pushed herself away from the wall and set about pacing up and down the corridor, aimlessly counting how many steps it would take to reach the other end. Three trips back and forth all produced different results. She set about counting the lockers on the opposite side of the corridor instead.

Time dragged on. Carrie began to feel less and less irritated, and more and more worried.

"Come on, Ted!" the muggle muttered to herself, turning to stride up the corridor and round the corner towards the boys' toilets. "You don't want your gran to get mad at you again!"

This corridor, like the one before it, was entirely deserted, and Carrie went to stand before the door to the boys' toilets, hesitating every so slightly before reaching to bang her fist upon the wood.

"Teddy?" she called, leaning to press her ear to the wood. "Ted, hurry up, your gran'll be waiting for you! Can you hear me, Ted?"

Silence.

Carrie heaved a sigh of irritation. She wanted to get home, she wanted to see if Remus had replied yet and, more importantly, she wanted to talk to Mildred.

"Teddy? Hello?"

When once again her calls were met by silence, Carrie took a small, deliberating step back from the door. It was then that she realised that she was stood in a puddle of water. On closer inspection she found that it seemed to be seeping out from under the door.

Typical, she thought irritably, reaching to bang upon the door again. Silly boys, they were always flooding the toilets...

"Ted if you don't hurry up I'm going to leave without you!" she threatened, infuriated when he failed to reply. Glancing around to make sure she was still alone, the muggle reached to fling open the door.

"Did you even hear me..." she began as she took a step into the sodden room beyond, only to stop dead at the sight before her.

For there, lying sprawled upon the damp floor beside the row of sinks, an overflowing basin dripping water down upon his chest, was a grey haired Teddy Lupin, his face pale and his dark eyes staring blankly up towards the tiled ceiling.

Carrie Winters screamed.


	14. Chosen

_Note: This is the part where I always thank those of you who have reviewed the previous chapter, I'm sure it's very predictable and a little repetitive by now! But I would still like to say thank you very much, because I was utterly delighted to find such a flood of reviews in my inbox! In fact, without counting the final chapters of stories which have been posted for a long time, I don't think I have ever posted a chapter that got so many reviews in such a short space of time! So...thank you! You really do make me smile! =) (A bit like that, as it happens!) _

_I'm not sure whether or not I can outdo the previous chapters cliffhanger! (I'm sure plenty of you are glad!) This chapter is...important...but certainly not as interesting as the one before! But I will attempt a dramatic ending all the same! (Can't let Kurioda think I'm losing my nerve now, can I?)_

_And prepare yourselves for the chapter after this. Pack some suncream and your sun glasses. We're taking a little trip to Southern France!_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any profit from this piece of writing. I do, however, own Caroline "Carrie" Winters and her family._

**14: Chosen**

The spray of water droplets splashing upon her bare legs as she dashed clumsily across the room sent a cold shiver down Carrie's spine as she dropped to her knees beside the limp wizard upon the floor, oblivious to the damp upon her dress as she reached to shake Teddy firmly by the shoulder.

"Teddy? Ted...wake up!"

When the boy's head merely lolled to the side, Carrie gritted her teeth in panic. She rather supposed she ought check his pulse, but she felt much too afraid.

What if he didn't have one?

Drawing in a deep breath, she leaned forward and reached to hold her hand before his face.

Please be breathing...please be breathing...

"Thank Merlin!" the muggle whispered when she felt warm air tickling her fingertips, resisting the urge to fling her arms around her friend in relief. She reached to shake him by the shoulder again, calling his name.

"Teddy!"

When he once again failed to stir, she reached to wet her fingers in the puddle upon the floor before flicking water at his pale face.

Teddy's brow furrowed at the chilly assault upon his face as he slowly regained consciousness, blurry eyes flickering open.

"Wake up, Ted." Carrie told him, giving his shoulder another shake, and his gaze slowly focused upon her face.

"Carrie...?" he mumbled groggily, frown deepening considerably.

"What happened?" she cried as he reached to pass a disorientated hand across his eyes. "Are you alright? I should...I should get a teacher or...or something..."

"I think...I think I fell..." Teddy murmured somewhat uncertainly, eying the sink to his left thoughtfully. "Yes...I...I think I...I hit my head on the sink. I slipped in the water, tried to steady myself on the wall with my hand, but I fell and hit my head on the sink."

"Don't move." Carrie instructed firmly, heart beginning to race again as she got hurriedly to her feet. "You might have a concussion or something. I'm going to fetch a teacher..."

"You better not. I don't want to get carted off to a muggle hospital or something..."

"There's nothing wrong with muggle hospitals!"

"Mum says they stitch people back together, like they're made out of cloth or something...there's no way I'm having somebody's gran attacking me with her pocket sewing kit!"

"Shut up. Ted. Just don't move, alright? I'm going to get a teacher."

Relieved that he felt well enough to grumble at her, Carrie got to her feet, at last aware of just how sodden the hem of her dress had become. Sighing a little with irritation she made for the door, pausing halfway through to glance back at the boy.

"Don't fall asleep." she instructed sternly, causing him to frown at her. "Because that's when...you know..."

"That's when what?"

"Well you know, that's the part in the movies when they always die. When they fall asleep." And with that, ignoring the slightly alarmed expression upon Teddy's face, she disappeared out into the corridor to find a teacher.

She turned left and headed in the direction of the staff room, her pace rushed and determinedly stomping. As she rounded another corner, she came to an abrupt halt as she narrowly avoided walking straight into the bucket of soapy water that had been left in her path, and as she wobbled slightly to keep herself from tripping, Carrie's gaze came to rest upon the mop that had been left propped up against the wall. For a long moment she simply stood and stared, panic descending again as she wondered: What if?

What if Teddy had not simply slipped upon the wet floor and cracked his head?

What if Avery had something to do with it?

What if Teddy had been attacked?

At first Carrie attempted to banish such worrying thoughts as she stared down at the bucket, a strong smell of cleaning fluid assaulting her nostrils. Surely, she silently reasoned, Teddy would have known if he had been attacked? Surely he would have noticed if somebody had pushed him, or even if somebody else had entered the boys' toilets? He had seemed so sure of what had happened, after all...

A little too sure, maybe. Was it entirely normal to remember such things with vivid clarity? Carrie was not entirely sure.

_Keep walking_, she told herself firmly, and yet as she stepped around the bucket and carried on down the corridor she found her imagination running wild. She remembered the strange yet frightening day the previous summer, when Teddy had told her that he and his family were magical. She remembered his parents' reaction to the news, and their concern that Carrie might be Obliviated.

It was perhaps the one aspect of magic that Carrie found most intimidating: The possibility that somebody could alter her mind, make it not quite her own. What if Teddy was mistaken? What if his thoughts had not been created by him?

It was just as she was considering this disturbing notion that she reached the bottom of the staircase that lead to the corridor outside of the Headmistress' office, and she spotted one of the English teachers, Mr. Fielding, making his way down the steps towards her.

"Sir!" the girl cried, letting out a deep sigh of relief at the sight of him. "Sir, come quickly! There's been an accident! My friend has fallen over and hit his head!"

Mr. Fielding's pace faltered in surprise for a brief moment, before he hurried down the last few steps towards her.

"Where is he?" the blonde haired man asked as Carrie turned to lead the way.

"He's in the toilets, he cracked his head on the sink and he was out cold when I found him."

"I see...what's your name?"

"Caroline Winters, Sir. You teach my brothers, Timothy and Thomas."

"Ah yes...so I do..."

Carrie couldn't help but think he sounded a little exasperated at the mere mention of the twins, but she was much too preoccupied to wonder exactly why.

They arrived at the boys' toilets a few minutes later, and Carrie stood by the door, lip caught between her teeth as she watched Mr. Fielding examine Teddy with a deep frown.

"Where exactly did you hit your head?" the teacher asked after a long moment, fingers gently prodding searchingly through Teddy's hair, which, to Carrie's relief, seemed to have regained a bit of it's colour.

"On the side...just here..."

"I can't see anything..."

At this observation, Carrie's suspicions were renewed afresh, but she was left little time to think upon them when Mr. Fielding said:

"I ought phone your parents, so that they can come and collect you."

"His parents aren't here." Carrie explained as the teacher slowly eased Teddy up into a sitting position, propping him up against the wall. "They're on holiday in France."

"I'm staying with my grandmother." Teddy told the man, who was busy reaching into his pocket for his mobile phone. "She doesn't have a telephone. She...doesn't like technology all that much. She's...old fashioned..."

"You could ring my mum." Carrie suggested hurriedly, noting Mr. Fielding's frown at Teddy's mumblings. "Ted's gran is waiting for him next door, my mum could fetch her."

When she waved goodbye at the gates to Teddy and his grandmother some while later, watching their slow retreat down the street towards the nearest secluded alleyway, Teddy huddled unsteadily against Andromeda's side, Carrie felt a sudden desire to get as far away from Oakhurst as she possibly could, and she ran the length of the main road until she felt a little more at ease. When she finally arrived home, shuffling over the threshold and reaching to push the door shut behind her, she almost let out a despairing laugh when she heard her mother call:

"Everything better, love?"

The child wandered down the hallway and into the kitchen to find her mother midway through stirring a wooden spoon around a large mixing bowl full of cookie dough.

"Did Mrs. Tonks make it to school alright?" Mrs. Winters asked, and the questioning glance she offered her daughter tipped Carrie over the edge. She burst into tears.

"Goodness, Carrie!" her mother exclaimed, abandoning the wooden spoon and hurrying around the kitchen table to throw her arms around the girl. "Whatever is the matter?"

It took Carrie a long moment of sobbing into her mother's cardigan before she could explain:

"Teddy! He...oh Mum, I was so scared!"

"I'm sure he'll be just fine, love." her mother assured her soothingly. "Mrs. Tonks said she would take him to the hospital if need be, but Mr. Fielding seemed to think he wasn't in such a bad way. Don't you worry, I expect he'll be fine by Monday in time for school!"

Carrie had no doubt that this was true too, but it did not make her feel much better. There were other, far more sinister implications to Teddy's accident that she could not possibly explain to her mother, and so she wiggled free of Mrs. Winters' hold and with a sniff announced:

"I'm tired. I'm going to go and have a lie down."

"You do that, Sweetheart." her mother agreed, turning her attention back to the mixing bowl. "Have a little sleep, you've had a nasty shock. Then I tell you what, you can be first to try one of these cookies for me, see if they're any good for your aunt's birthday party! Don't tell the twins though, will you? They'll want one each too."

Carrie attempted a smile before turning and shuffling off towards her bedroom. As she mounted the stairs, it occurred to her that she had not been lying; she was in fact very tired indeed. Her legs seemed far heavier than usual, and her head was beginning to ache.

_That's what panic does to you_, she thought dully as she reached the landing and made for her bedroom.

She felt a brief reprieve from her dismal mood when she stepped into the room to discover that Godric had returned from France. The feathered messenger appeared to have found his way through the window that she had left open and was perched upon her desk, head bend at a precarious angle as he attempted to peck at the drawer in which she had left box of cat treats. Stifling a snigger, Carrie shut the door carefully behind her and dashed across the room towards the owl.

"Godric!" she cried as she skidded to a halt before the bird, who paused in his assault of the wooden desk to stare at her expectantly. "I have another letter for you, it's in here..." she reached to pull open the drawer, much to the owl's delight, only to jump backwards in alarm as he made a dive for the newly revealed box of treats.

"I'm not giving you one yet!" Carrie informed him sternly as she reached forward to snatch up her latest letter to Remus. "Not until you give me my letter first!"

The owl stared blankly at her, and it was then, with a sinking heart, that Carrie noticed that he had returned to her entirely letter-free.

Remus had not written back.

Carrie rather felt like crying again, she had been so excited to receive a reply, and yet she dabbed determinedly at her eyes and reached for the cat treats.

"I expect he's dead busy." she told the owl dejectedly as she offered it a few of the little treats on the palm of her hand, wincing a little when the over-excited creature pecked at her skin. "Seeing sights and that sort of thing. Maybe he'll write back next time."

After greedily scoffing far more treats than was probably wise, Godric allowed her to attach her new letter to his leg before she carried him over to the open window.

"Don't come back without a reply this time, okay?" Carrie instructed, and with that the bird soared out of the window. She stood and watched until he had disappeared from view, before reaching to draw the curtains across the window, the bright sunlight making her head ache more than ever.

She retreated to her bed, lying atop the duvet upon her back, before reaching under her pillow to retrieve Mildred's mirror, smiling to see the witch's face slowly materialize before her.

Was it Carrie's imagination, or did the face look...clearer today?

The weekend passed slowly, brief interludes of activity such as a walk to the sweet shop and an afternoon at her aunt's birthday party, overshadowed by long periods of solitude until Sunday evening arrived and Carrie's mother commented at dinner that she had barely seen her daughter all weekend.

"It's like living with a ghost!" Mrs. Winters had exclaimed as she rose from her chair to fetch ice cream from the freezer for dessert. "You've been in your room all weekend, what on earth have you been doing up there?"

As she stared absentmindedly down at the bowl that her father set down before her, Carrie found herself wondering the same thing. Of course she knew what she had been doing, she had been talking to Mildred in the mirror and writing to Remus, but had days always been so short? Since when had they ended so quickly? Surely if they would last a little longer she might have gotten round to doing something else.

"I've been...tired." she decided as Mrs. Winters sat back down opposite her, ice cream scoop and tub of strawberry ice cream at the ready. "I've just been...in my room."

As she pulled the lid from the tub, Carrie's mother eyed her with a small frown.

"You do look rather tired." she observed as Thomas eagerly held his bowl out for her to take. "You must get to bed nice and early, you've school in the morning."

"Mmm." Carrie agreed, eying her warped reflection in the back of her spoon. She wasn't sure going to bed early would make a whole lot of difference. Sleep was difficult when she was forever tempted to reach under her pillow for another look at Mildred's mirror, even more so when she heard Mildred's voice in her dreams. When a few moments later her mother reached to dollop a scoop of ice cream into her bowl, the girl shook her head.

"I don't think I want any pudding." she mumbled with a frown. "I feel...a bit sick."

Again, her mother scrutinized her from across the table, frowning deeply.

"You were right about living with a ghost, Mum." Thomas observed through a mouthful of ice cream. "Carrie looks like one!"

"Why don't you go to bed, Carrie love?" Mr Winters suggested as he reached for the ice cream himself.

Carrie left the table without a word, retreating to her bedroom where she changed into her pyjamas and climbed into bed, reaching to retrieve Mildred's mirror and finding the smiling face staring back at her once again.

"I wish you wouldn't wake me." she told Mildred's silent figure, shifting further down under the duvet. "I'm ever so tired all the time."

She replaced the mirror and fell asleep quickly. She did not dream.

Until a familiar voice whispered through the darkness to her, causing her to stir.

_I have chosen you, Caroline Winters._

When Teddy Lupin arrived upon the Winters' doorstep the following morning, once again it was not Carrie who opened the door, but one of her brothers.

"She's upstairs still." the twin explained, barely audible as he turned and headed straight back towards the living room. "I think she's ill or something."

Teddy reached to push the door shut behind him with a frown, reaching with a sigh to scratch at the bandage that his grandmother had insisted on wrapping tightly around his head that morning before allowing him to step into the floo.

_Muggles who crack their heads open don't recover overnight, you know_, she'd insisted. Teddy had tried in vain to persuade her that a hat would be perfectly sufficient, but to his irritation he had been informed that, from what Andromeda could recall, muggle children were not allowed to wear hats in school. He had tried telling her that, it being summer school, he could wear anything he wanted, but his arguing had been entirely unsuccessful.

He made his way up the stairs and reached to knock upon Carrie's bedroom door. When he received no response, he reached to slowly push the door open and peer inside.

"Carrie...?" he called softly, only to find his friend sat at the little desk as he had done the Friday morning beforehand. As he took a small step into the room, he saw that in actual fact she was slumped forward, her head resting upon her arms that were folded before her like a makeshift pillow, a pen held limply in one hand. She appeared to be snoring. Suppressing a snigger, Teddy crossed the room to her side, reaching to tap her upon the shoulder.

"Wake up Carrie, it's time for school!"

The muggle let out a soft groan as she awoke, blinking against the bright sunlight that was streaming through a gap in the curtains.

"You look awful." Teddy observed cheerfully as she slowly sat up, reaching to rub the sleep from her eyes.

"I feel rather awful." she admitted, frowning deeply as she rose to her feet. "You look...quite funny."

Teddy rolled his eyes as she eyed the bandage around his head.

"You need to hurry up, we're going to be late." he told her as she fumbled to pull open the desk's drawer and shoved a few pieces of paper inside.

"I'll be right down." She murmured, and once he had left her to get dressed she wandered over to the mirror upon the wall, frowning deeply at her pale, sickly complexion. It was strange, she mused as she leant forward to get a closer look. It was almost as if her skin seemed...thinner than usual.

And Merlin, did she feel ill. Weak. Tired.

She was just a bit tired.

Carrie stifled a yawn before padding over to her wardrobe to retrieve a pair of jeans and a t shirt.

The first lesson that morning was English with Miss Small. Carrie found it incredibly difficult to concentrate. She could not help but keep yawning, and every time she did she found herself musing just how tired she felt, how her limbs were aching, how her head was starting to ache too.

She wondered whether or not it was possible for one to catch the flu in the middle of the summer. She sincerely hoped that the answer was no. Perhaps, if she were to rest her head upon her arms, her head might not pound quite so much. She could still listen, even if her eyes did occasionally drift shut.

"Carrie! Carrie wake up!"

Teddy was shaking her shoulder. Carrie's eyes immediately snapped open and she sat bolt upright in her chair.

Miss Small was stood beside the whiteboard, her lips pressed together in a thin line and her arms folded firmly across her chest as she stared at the girl with narrowed eyes. Carrie was just noting that the entire class also appeared to be staring at her when the teacher said:

"How kind of you to rejoin us, Caroline. I do hope that my lesson does not continue to bore you."

As behind her, Carl Thompson and his friend sniggered, Carrie felt her cheeks flushing in embarrassment, but before she could mumble an apology, beside her Teddy announced:

"Carrie isn't very well today, Miss Small. I'm sure she didn't mean to be so rude."

If she had not felt so embarrassed by her brief slumber, Carrie might have been amused by the way that Miss Small's indignation seemingly dissolved on the spot.

"Do you need to go and see the nurse, Caroline?" she asked, tone instantly kinder, and again before Carrie could say anything, Teddy said:

"Yes, she does."

And with that, Carrie found Teddy grasping hold of her arm and pulling her to her feet. Still numb with embarrassment, she allowed him to gather up their belongings and lead her out of the classroom. The sudden movement made Carrie's head spin, and as soon as the door had swung shut behind them, she planted her feet firmly upon the floor to bring them to a halt.

"You'll have to show me where we're going." Teddy pointed out as he turned to regard her with a deep frown. "This is going to be cool, I've never met a muggle nurse before."

"She's not a proper nurse, not really." Carrie mumbled, reaching to pass a hand across her forehead with a sigh. "She's got an office beside the main reception."

"Right, let's go then." Teddy instructed, eying her doubtfully as he asked: "Do you think you can make it alright?"

"I'm not dying, Ted!" Carrie grumbled stubbornly as they set off down the corridor, his hand still upon her elbow. "I'm just...a bit tired."

Teddy gave a snort of disbelief.

"A bit tired!" he scoffed. "That's what Dad says to people the day after full moon. Then he spends the day half passed out on the sofa, shivering and sweating like he's got the dragon pox."

"DRAGON pox...?"

"Yep..."

"Like...chicken pox?"

"A bit nastier. Has a habit of killing people."

Carrie shuddered at the thought.

"Can muggles get dragon pox?" she wondered aloud, and Teddy offered her a grin.

"Nope. See, I told you being a muggle wasn't so bad."

Teddy was suitably unimpressed by Oakhurst's school nurse, for she seemed completely incapable of doing anything much besides offering Carrie a glass of water before phoning Mrs. Winters.

"What if she sends me home?" Carrie whispered to Teddy as the frizzy haired woman stood with the phone's receiver to her ear, waiting to offer Carrie's mother the obligatory I've Got Caroline Here, She Says She Doesn't Feel Well speech.

"What do you mean?" Teddy asked, gazing with mild interest up at one of the posters that the nurse had pinned to the wall of the office, a distinctly brightly coloured representation of the muscles of the human body.

"I mean...what are you going to do?"

"Oh..." Teddy looked immediately troubled. "Well, I suppose I'll go back to English..." He sounded distinctly unhappy. When she looked guiltily at her shoes he added: "Somebody's got to bring you your homework if your ill!"

"You don't have to. You could just...stop coming."

Teddy gave a shrug.

"Don't be silly, Carrie." he said with a smile. "You're not going to be out of school forever! Like you said, you're not dying!"

And Carrie smiled back at him, her spirits lifted every so slightly as she agreed:

"No, of course I'm not."

And yet, some hour later when she found herself being tucked up into bed by her mother, her eyes immediately drifting closed as sleep engulfed her, Carrie couldn't help but wonder exactly what was happening to her. And as a voice once again invaded her sleep, she felt a sudden stab of fear and uncertainty.

_I have chosen you, Caroline Winters._

Who did know quite what was happening to her? Certainly not Carrie herself. It was quite unlike any illness she had ever felt before. Perhaps she really was dying, she really didn't know.

_I have chosen you, Caroline Winters._

_I have you now. _


	15. Dear Remus

_Note: Bonjour! I'd be clever and write a bit more French, but sadly my foreign language skills are next to non-existent. Especially when it comes to writing Author's Notes, unless you want to hear about what colour my hair is and how many pets I have..._

_The cake incident in this chapter is a homage of sorts to a situation that arose whilst I was on holiday in the Dordogne Valley with my brother last year! As are the mentioned fireworks! =)_

_This chapter is dedicated to **Rue-the-Marauder**, for such impeccable guessing skills!_

_And a note to **Kuroida** regarding the first half of this chapter: Do not be alarmed! _

_As for the rest of you: the finale begins...NOW! (Well...give it half a chapter, anyway...) _

_Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any profit from this piece of writing._

**15: Dear Remus**

Five days later, and some six hundred or so miles south of Eddington, Remus Lupin was sitting under a tree beside the Dordogne River, watching the world go by.

To be more precise, he was watching his wife lying lazily upon a picnic blanket, busy sucking the sugary remnants of yet another cake from her fingers.

"Good?" he found himself asking her, though he knew the answer already, and she merely mumbled:

"Mmm."

There was contented silence for a long moment as she reached to discard the cake's elaborate wrapping in a plastic bag beside her, before stretching her arms and rolling onto one side to face him.

"Remus?"

"Hm?"

"Would you still love me if I was fat?"

Remus began a contemplative examination of the tree branches above him, a bright collage of green leaves and sunlight, only to find the question simply bemusing.

"You're a metamorphmagus, Dora. Why would you ever choose to be fat?"

Tonks puffed her cheeks in exasperation, flopping back down upon her back so that she could stare up at the sky.

"Well obviously I wouldn't...but that's not really the point though, is it?"

Remus wasn't entirely sure if that was the point or not, the warm afternoon sun was making him sleepy.

"Well..." he decided, still staring at the leaves. "I suppose I might be a little bemused by your choice. But I'd love you just the same. Plenty of your choices bemuse me, after all."

Tonks' head immediately snapped round to stare at him, her expression instantly stung, and as he glanced down at the sudden movement, Remus suddenly realised his mistake.

"I wasn't talking about...about that." he insisted, and for the briefest moment he was quite worried that she might burst into tears, just as she had done a few days previously, but instead she let out a small sigh of relief and went back to staring at the sky.

"You know," she said, fingers fiddling with the hem of her t shirt absentmindedly. "If we're going to go ahead with it...well...we should probably stop referring to it as That." She glanced sideways at him again to gage his reaction, and he swallowed the lump in his throat as she said: "We should be...enthusiastic." Her expression became hopeful as she waited for his agreement.

They have barely arrived at their hotel the previous week before she had flopped down upon the bed in their hotel room and, staring at him somewhat despairingly as he had finished his inspection of the view from their window before going to sit beside her, reached to lay her hand upon his knee, whispering:

"I don't think I can get rid of it, you know."

And Remus had known there and then that it was not just a thought. It was a statement of fact.

Of course they had still sat down and done the math. They had figured out that having a baby would be financially foolish, that their vault at Gringotts would contain substantially less gold if she were to cut down her hours at the Ministry whilst the child was young, that a pay rise would look somewhat unlikely with a baby to rush off home to. They had admitted to themselves that he felt too old to be woken up by a wailing baby every few hours at night, and that her work would be murder if she consistently got such a poor night's sleep. They had both agreed that in some ways it just felt like exactly what it had been: a mistake. Neither of them felt ready or prepared to be parents for a second time. They had become concerned about the age gap between Teddy and the new child, wondered how they would remain a close-knit family when Teddy would spend the majority of his sibling's early years away at Hogwarts. They'd worried what Teddy would think, or indeed what anybody would think. And would they feel guilty for reacting to the prospect so badly themselves?

But really, none of the long and emotionally draining conversations had made much of a difference. Remus had known what the outcome was going to be. He was pretty sure that Tonks had known it too. It hadn't even made a difference in the evenings after dinner, when they had lain in bed and she had stared at him for long periods of time, before bursting into tears and complaining that she was afraid that he didn't understand, that he couldn't understand.

And Remus strongly suspected that she was right, he couldn't. After all, he wasn't the one who was pregnant. But he also suspected that his lack of understanding didn't matter. Because if Tonks felt that, despite everything, she could not get rid of the child, that was all he really needed to know. He would accept her decision and never question it. His own opinion – as completely uncertain as it had been to begin with – didn't matter. That was all part of being married.

Despite his assurances, she had spent long hours attempting to explain her reasoning. It didn't matter what the consequences might be, good or bad. Life, she had consistently claimed, was precious. A gift. Who knew what was around the corner? Who knew what might happen in ten years time? She had never imagined the War would bring such devastation when she had first heard that Voldemort had returned, or rather her imaginings had been painfully inaccurate and optimistic. Of course the likelihood of death during peace time was, even for Aurors, comparatively miniscule. But it made no difference to how she felt. Life, she insisted, was something to be treasured. And she could not end it, she simply couldn't. Not when they had started it, not when she was already nurturing it.

She'd sounded so sure and passionate that Remus was beginning to think her beliefs were infectious. If the decision were entirely down to him he was no longer convinced that he would choose the sensible, logical answer.

And so it had quickly been settled. They were going to have a baby, and damn the consequences.

"You're right." Remus decided, gazing out over the sparkling water as a group of excitable teenagers paddled noisily past in a fleet of canoes. "We should be enthusiastic." He waited for some sort of inspired, cheery comment to occur to him and, spotting two girls paddling some way behind the other children, mused: "We might have a daughter this time. I'd like that."

Tonks positively beamed at the very thought as she returned her gaze to the bright sky.

"If we have a girl," she said, fingers tapping thoughtfully upon her stomach, "what do you reckon we should call her?"

"Isn't it a bit early for that?"

"No. I think we should name her now."

"How do you know it's a her?"

"Because that's how it goes: boy, girl, boy, girl...unless you're a Weasley in which case it just goes boy, boy, boy, boy, boy, boy..." she trailed off with a shrug. "I don't know, love. I just...think it is. Anyway, we should name her now, I think it would help, you know?"

"Help...?"

"Well I reckon we'd be more excited, you know, if she had a name...like...like she's already a person."

Remus pursed his lips together in consideration before consenting:

"Well obviously we're going to name her Dora, after you."

"Yeah...but what about her first name?"

They spent a good half an hour throwing names back and forth, sidetracking occasionally to have the well known conversation that usually begins with There's absolutely no way that you are ever naming any child of mine...

At last, having finally admitted that, given their background, Phoenix might be just a little too pretentious, Tonks sat up and shuffled across the blanket until she was sat beside him, her head coming to rest upon his shoulder.

"You know what, Remus?" she said as he reached to put an arm around her, still staring out across the river. "I think she's actually going to do us good."

"How so?"

"Well...you're not going to be sat around doing nothing all day, are you? That's...good for your sanity...don't you think?"

"Maybe..."

"Which means we won't row so often, you know, about...things."

"Mm."

"Which then means you won't think you want to divorce me on a regular basis."

At last he cracked a smile, glancing sideways at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Since when have I ever so much as hinted that I might want to divorce you?"

She sniggered into his shoulder, wrapping her arms around his arm and hugging it tightly.

"You do it all the time." she insisted. "You never say it, but I can tell it's what you're thinking. It's obvious, I can almost hear the voice in your head saying it: I want a bloody divorce..."

"Rubbish..."

"...And it makes me laugh because it's almost as though you reckon I'd let you."

"Well at least I've never said it out loud. Unlike some people."

At this accusation, Tonks turned to stare at him with wide eyes, grip upon his arm tightening almost threateningly.

"I have NEVER...!"

"Shhhh!" he chuckled, leaning to press a kiss to her forehead as she stared at him in outrage. "No arguing in front of the baby."

She sniggered into his shoulder again, before turning to stare out across the river with a heavy sigh.

"Merlin...what're people going to think?" she wondered, tone suddenly a little despairing, and, still endeavoring to be enthusiastic, he told her:

"Who cares? I think you're right, she's going to be good for us. A little ray of sunshine."

"I think that would be a good name..."

"You can't call a baby Sunshine, Dora, you of all people should understand just how cruel that would..."

"Shut up, Remus. That wasn't what I meant." she twisted around to face him, reaching to entangle their fingers together as she told him: "I want to call her Rae."

"Rae?"

"You hate it?"

"Of course I don't."

Tonks' expression became distinctly accusing.

"I seem to recall us having this conversation before, love. I want to call him Ted. Ted? You hate it? Of course I don't...you're not humouring me, are you?"

"Honestly, I do like it..." he trailed off in consideration, eying a passing boat upon which a large group of muggle tourists were drifting along the river. Gaze coming to rest upon the side of the boat, he spotted the vessel's name painted in elaborately swirly blue letters. "I think," he decided, raising a hand to wave at a group of children who were leaning over the rails at the boat's side, frantically attempting to wave to as many people upon the banks as they could manage, cheering when anybody bothered to respond, "we should call her Aurelia."

As she too gazed at the Aurelia as it drifted on down the Dordogne, Tonks found herself grinning.

"That's it, isn't it?"

"I think so."

"Aurelia Dora Lupin."

"Definitely."

"Rae."

"Absolutely."

And the couple found themselves grinning in what they both thought was probably quite a silly manner, and Remus knew then that not only were they going to have a baby, they were going to be happy about it too.

When, a few minutes of contented silence, he found that Tonks' gaze was lingering upon the bag in which she had discarded the cake boxes, Remus found himself heaving a sigh of exasperation.

"Sweet Merlin," he breathed in disbelief, reaching to flatted a wayward strand of her bubblegum pink hair. "You don't want another one, do you? I've already walked back to the bakery twice, and dinner will be in an hour or so."

Tonks' face contorted as she reached to rest her hands upon her stomach with a firm shake of the head.

"Of course I don't!" she cried, oblivious to the relief that descended upon him at the realisation that he would not have to walk all the way up the hill and back into town yet again. "As amazing as they were...I don't think I could eat another one. In fact, I don't think I shall ever eat another cake, not as long as I live!"

"I give you half a day at most."

"I'm being serious!"

"So am I."

"Git. And don't talk about dinner, either! Merlin...the thought of eating ANYTHING...I feel sick!"

"Yes well, that does tend to happen if you insist on stuffing your face with that amount of cake and icing..."

"Shut up. This is all your fault!"

"You can't say that, I must've walked MILES today! All because you fancied some cake! Do you have any idea what the woman in the bakery must think of me, showing up there every half an hour..."

"I think you'll find that I can say anything I like. You know how it works, love. Everything'll be your fault for the foreseeable future."

"Are you trying to play the pregnancy card already?"

"Of course I am. Nine months isn't a terrible long time, after all. I have to make the most of it."

"That's..."

"Unfair? Should've thought of that before you got me pregnant."

Eyes widening in mock-fury as she dissolved into laughter, he pulled his arms free from her and folded them across his chest.

"I want a divorce." he informed her, barely managing to keep a straight face, and she gave an exaggerated gasp.

"HOW COULD YOU?" she shrieked, causing a few passing people to stare at them, not quite sure to make of the scene as the witch lunged forwards to throw her arms around her husband, sending him toppling sideways, elbow colliding painfully with a tree root, leaving him to bite his tongue in an attempt not to curse.

"Do-ra..." he wheezed as her weight atop him knocked the air from his lungs, his back aching in protest at the sudden collision with the uneven ground.

"Apologize!" Tonks demanded, shifting in an attempt to pin his hands underneath her with little success. "Or else!"

"Or else what?" Remus managed to ask, pulling his hands free and wrapping his arms securely around her waist. When she only managed to giggle he pulled her closer to him, pressing a firm kiss to her lips. "I thought as much." he murmured, squirming as she reached to tangle her fingers in his hair. "Now stop making a spectacle of yourself and let me breathe, if you don't move soon I seriously doubt I'll manage the walk back to the hotel, these tree roots are torture." When this only seemed to make her laugh harder, crumpling in hysterics against his chest, he reminded her: "We'll have to leave now if we're to shower before dinner."

The Auror gave an exaggerated groan as she consented to sitting up and getting rather stiffly to her feet.

"Why did I have to marry somebody so sensible?" she grumbled as the werewolf hauled himself up into a sitting position, reaching to brush the dirt from his hair.

"Merlin knows," he said as they set about gathering up their belongings, stuffing the blanket into a bag. "But sometimes I'm not sure you'd last ten seconds without me."

As they set off back up the road that ran alongside the river, ready to head back up the hill towards their hotel, the bag slung over his shoulder and her hand tucked into the crook of his arm, Tonks eyed the bag accusingly as she admitted:

"I wasn't joking, you know. I couldn't possibly eat dinner. I feel hideous. You'll have to go without me."

"I'd rather not." he mused as they turned to walk up the hill, the sun just beginning to set behind them. "Tell you what, there are fireworks down by the fields after dark. We'll go back to the hotel, you can jump in the shower, I'll cancel dinner and then we can go and watch. See how Filibusters compare to their muggle counterparts."

Their chosen hotel, a small establishment in a quiet corner of the town, was a purposefully unassuming building with pleasant views looking down upon a stream that ran through the town towards the river. Run by wizards for wizards, there was no sign outside identifying it as a hotel at all, a simple yet effective way remaining a muggle-free zone.

They separated in the little entrance hall, Tonks heading straight for their room as Remus went to the reception desk to cancel their table for dinner. As he approached the desk, the werewolf found the hotel manager, who had introduced himself on their first day as Pierre, midway through a furious yet hushed conversation in French with his teenaged son who helped out at the reception desk each day after school.

When he reached the desk and found they both seemed oblivious to his presence, Remus found himself feeling a little awkward, though he had no idea what they were saying. He coughed loudly.

Pierre froze mid-sentance, and both he and the boy turned to look at their guest, the latter's eyes widening somewhat in alarm. His father, on the other hand, instantly plastered a smile onto his face and offered an enthusiastic greeting.

"I wonder," Remus said, doing his best to ignore the continuously wide eyed look upon the boy's face, "if I might cancel my table for dinner this evening. My wife is not feeling particularly well."

"That eez a pity, sir." Pierre said, reaching for a pen to scribble something upon the ledger set down upon the desk before him. "Certainly you may do so. I do 'ope that your wife feels better soon. It eez not serious?"

"Oh no, not at all." Remus reminded himself to smile brightly as he explained: "We're expecting a baby."

Pierre clapped his hands together in delight, much to his son's bemusement. Remus could only assume that the boy did not speak much English.

"Ah! Ce'st fantastique! Congratulations, sir!"

"Thank you. We're very excited." As he listened to himself give an obligatory response, Remus found that it was not entirely false. He was genuinely beginning to feel excited. Indeed, it felt nice to share the news.

"It is very, very exciting!" Pierre agreed, only to shoot his son a sideways glance as he said: "But I tell you, Mr. Lupin, children are not all fun and games, oh no!"

"They certainly aren't." Remus agreed, and the boy shrunk back to busy himself with some papers in a drawer up against the far wall.

"Take my boy Adrien here, for example. I tell 'im five days ago, take Mr. and Mrs. Lupin their post while they are at breakfast. Does he remember to do eet? Non! He does not!"

Remus watched in surprise as the man reached under the desk to draw out a large pile of envelopes, and as he did so Adrien's gaze fell to his shoes.

"And see 'ere, there have been so many letters now! You are very popular it seems, sir!"

As both father and son mumbled profuse apologies in a mixture of French and English, Remus accepted the bundle of letters with a deep frown.

There had to be close on one letter for every day since he had left England...

"Always the same owl, sir." Pierre was explaining, face a little red in embarrassment at his son's blunder. "It must have gotten too tired for the journey, I think! There have not been any letters today!"

Remus mumbled thanks, turning his back on the desk and wandering slowly towards the stairs, examining each letter in turn before shuffling it to the bottom of the pile to look at the next. Every single letter was written in the same neat blue handwriting, in lines too thin for the average quill pen. The latest letters seemed to have been written somewhat sloppily, yet he was sure that the author was the same. He made his way up the staircase and along a corridor, musing that he ought have realised the hotel staff dealt with incoming post personally, they probably had means of ensuring that the flurry of owls did not become suspicious to the surrounding muggle residents. As he reached to open the door to his room, greeted by the soft patter of water from the bathroom beyond, he eyed the correspondence again with a frown. It was a bit much, he thought, when you received more post whilst on holiday than you usually would when at home. Still, he went and settled himself down upon the bed, reaching to pull open the first envelope.

_Dear Remus,_

_I've found Mildred Marchbrook's mirror._ _I know you said that there was no such thing as a magic mirror that could turn a muggle into a witch, and maybe you are still right. I have looked into the mirror, but I do not feel any different. How do I know whether or not I am a witch now? There is definitely something magical about this mirror. Sometimes when I look into it I can see the face of a young woman with pretty dark eyes and wavy hair. I think she can hear me, Remus, when I speak. I asked her if she was Mildred and she nodded her head. Can it really be her after all these years? Is it really possible for somebody to live inside a mirror? Even after they have died? _

_I hope that you and Dora are having a nice holiday. Teddy and I are doing well at school._

_Love_

_Carrie_

_Dear Remus, _

_The strangest thing happened to me last night. I heard a voice in my sleep, but I'm sure I wasn't dreaming. I was sure that the voice was Mildred, but when I looked into the mirror again she did not speak. Do you suppose she might be shy? I tried all night to get her to speak, I told her all about me, but she never breathed a word. I am beginning to wonder if I was wrong, that I imagined the voice. Is there such thing as a talking mirror? What do you think I ought do? She said she would make me a witch, but I do not understand how. Do you think she has already done it? If I were to borrow Ted's wand, would I be able to make things fly like you can? _

_I am waiting for Godric to come back with your letter, I am so very excited!_

_Love_

_Carrie_

_Dear Remus, _

_I am ever so tired this morning, I wonder if I shall keep my eyes open until bedtime. Mildred spoke to me again, I am sure now that it was her. I sat and talked to her again but she still does not speak when I am looking into the mirror. I did notice something, though, her reflection seems to have changed. It is almost as if she were more solid and less like a ghost. Do you think that means anything? Perhaps she is beginning to feel less shy? Do you think she might talk to me properly soon? _

_You have not written back to me yet, I expect that you are very busy. You must be having a lovely time._

_Love_

_Carrie_

_Dear Remus,_

_I went to my aunt's birthday party yesterday, and yet all I could think of was Mildred. I am so very, very excited! I do hope that you write back soon and tell me what it is I am supposed to do. I'm sure that talking isn't doing much good, though I thought just now that Mildred's face seemed a little less transparent. I am not sure that I mind too much that she does not talk, she is still very friendly. I think she likes me. Do you think if she does she might make me a witch? She has such a pretty, thin face and her eyes look just like Dora's. She is always smiling at me now and she rarely disappears._

_Pretty please, write back soon! Even if it's one line! I'm so, so excited!_

_Love_

_Carrie_

_Dear Remus,_

_Today the nurse sent me home from school after I fell asleep in English class. I think that I might be catching something. Is it possible to have the flu at this time of year? Mum will not let me leave my bed and she sent Teddy home when he came to visit me after school. I felt bad for Teddy at first, now that he will have to go to school on his own, and I thought it might get lonely, since Mum is busy downstairs all the time. But I have Mildred to keep me company. You should see how she smiles. _

_I want to say that I am sorry. I think that you might be cross, because I did not listen to you about the mirror, and that is why you have not written back. Please don't be angry with me, surely Mildred is doing no harm? She always looks ever so friendly. _

_Say hello to Dora for me._

_Love_

_Carrie_

_Dear Remus,_

_The doctor says I am very poorly and has given me some medicine to take. She had to go out this afternoon to the shops and leave me home alone. I'm not sure I like being alone any longer, Remus. I am not sure that Mildred is as good company as I first thought. She still smiles at me, all the time, but there is something different about her face. Her eyes do not remind me of Dora anymore. They look cold and spiteful, as if she were smiling to see me sick. _

_Teddy told me that only wizards and witches can get dragon pox. I wonder, do you think I have some other sort of illness that only magical people can catch? Maybe I am a witch after all._

_Please write to me, Remus. I don't know what is happening anymore. My head feel fuzzy, I'm sure if you wrote I'd feel much better._

_Love_

_Carrie_

_Dear Remus,_

_I will never sleep again. It is all Mildred's fault. Whenever I close my eyes she speaks to me. She laughs at me and says cruel and horrible things. I don't understand. Why would she be so nasty, Remus? I was so sure that she liked me. Sometimes I think she still does, for she smiles at me more than ever. _

_I think that I am losing my memory, Remus. I forgot to take my medicine last night, and again this morning. Mum says that if I am not better soon she will have to take me to the hospital. I wish that she would not insist on keeping the windows open, I feel so terribly cold. I can't seem to help but keep crying. Do you think that I might be going a little mad? Mildred laughs when I cry. I think she thinks I'm silly._

_I still don't understand why you will not write to me. I am sorry I did not listen to you, I really really am. _

_Love_

_Carrie_

_Dear Remus, _

_I think I'm dying. I told Mum this morning when she brought me some toast for breakfast. She told me not to be silly. She was angry because I forgot my medicine again. _

_I was wrong about Mildred, you were right. I want her to go away, to leave me alone, but she won't stop whispering if I put the mirror away. Sometimes I think when I look at her that if I were to reach out I could really touch her. _

_I can not write anymore. I am much too tired. What is the point of writing, anyway? Mildred says you won't ever reply to me. _

_Carrie_

_Dear Remus,_

_I wish you would write to me. I'd get down on my knees and beg. Tell me how to get rid of Mildred. I don't want her here anymore. I hope that you are coming home soon. I am not sure when you will be, I can't remember how long you have been gone. _

_Please make her leave me. I can't stand it anymore. She cackles and mocks and tells me I am dying. I dare not ignore her, I am afraid of her, Remus. _

_Please, come home and make her go away... _

Remus sat, staring at the papers for a long, stunned moment, his mind desperately clawing to catch up with the words upon the pages, before he hurriedly folded the bundle in two and stuffed it into his pocket. Then he immediately made a dive for the suitcase in the corner, snatching up a discarded dressing gown as he went.

"DORA? GET OUT THE SHOWER!" 


	16. A Stupendously Dangerous & Foolish Plan

_Note: I'm afraid this chapter turned out to be shorter than I first planned...sorry about that! I have been rather distracted today as my cat died this morning, hence this update has been a bit slower than I promised._

_Also, FF won't let me save the paragraph breaks! I hope you don't get confused! XD_

_It was lovely to hear from so many of you again, thank you for your reviews!_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any profit from this piece of writing._

**16: A Stupendously Dangerous and Foolish Plan**

As darkness descended upon the summer evening outside, Cleopatra Clancy stood in the hallway of her house, eying the telephone sat in it's cradle upon the wall with a deep frown. Cleo had always considered herself to be a confident girl, she knew her own mind and had absolutely no problem in expressing herself. She rarely felt intimidated by anybody, not even adults. But as she stood, rocking back and forth upon her heels apprehensively, the child had to admit that there was one adult who she absolutely dreaded speaking to.

No indeed, Cleo had never, ever looked forward to any conversation with Mrs. Winters, no matter how brief it promised to be.

She was convinced that Mrs. Winters didn't like her. In fact Cleo was certain of it. Not that she would usually care much about the opinions of others, but with Mrs. Winters it was different. Cleo had never quite managed to put her finger on why Carrie's mother's opinion seemed to matter so much, after all the woman was, as Bowie had once pointed out, a bit of a snob. Perhaps it was because Cleo considered Carrie to be her very best friend. Surely your best friend's parents ought like you and be glad of the friendship? Or perhaps it was because Mrs. Winters seemed to rather prefer Teddy Lupin as a friend for her daughter, which was to Cleo's mind absurd and in a way insulting. The boy was completely mental, after all...

_Just do it_, Cleo told herself firmly, and with that she reached to snatch up the phone and punch determinedly at the buttons until she had dialed Carrie's number. As she pressed the phone apprehensively to her ear, Cleo wondered if she might be fortunate enough to catch one of Carrie's brothers or her father instead. Her heart sunk at the recollection that the twins would no doubt be at football practice and Mr. Winters was rarely home from work at a reasonable hour.

It was not for some while that Mrs. Winters answered the phone, and Cleo remembered to put on her best telephone voice.

"Hello Mrs. Winters," she said, turning her back to the wall so that she could lean against it. "It's Cleopatra. I was just wondering if Carrie was feeling any better today?"

She was just listening to Mrs. Winters response that no, Carrie was still very poorly and was asleep in her room, when she was forced to press the phone closer to her ear as there came the sound of a herd of elephants stampeding down the stairs.

"Oh dear, how awful!" the girl exclaimed, glancing up just in time to see Bowie bolting down the steps towards her. "I'm sorry to hear that. Would you please tell her that I hope she feels better soon?"

"Get off the phone, Squirt!" Bowie demanded in a barely hushed tone, holding her hand out impatiently as she came to a halt before the younger girl, and Cleo gave her the finger before turning away in an attempt to concentrate on the conversation at hand, just as Mrs. Winters announced that she was just leaving to pick the twins up from football practice.

"I see. Well I better let you go then, you won't want to leave Carrie for long...yes...yes...goodbye then, Mrs. Winters..." Cleo had barely pressed the end call button before she found the phone being snatched from her hand. She spun around to offer Bowie a scowl, but the older sibling was much too busy furiously dialling another number.

"Kayleigh! OH MY GOD! You will NOT believe what I've just seen..."

Cleo folded her arms moodily across her chest and, as Bowie dashed into the living room and began to peer around the edges of the net curtains, stomped after her sister with a scowl.

"I was on the phone to Carrie's MUM!" she protested angrily, face reddening in annoyance when Bowie merely told her:

"Shut up Sis, I'm on the phone...Kayleigh, seriously, they're RIGHT OUTSIDE!"

With a heavy sigh, Cleo crossed the room and, elbowing Bowie in the ribs to make her move up, poked her head around the curtain to see what all the fuss was about.

Richard Avery and Juliette Downton were stood just outside of the latter's front door, apparently midway through a disgustingly passionate embrace, her arms thrown around his neck as he reached to slip his hands beneath her bright red jacket, pulling her closer to him.

"Oh bloody hell, that's DISGUSTING!" Cleo hissed, turning to offer Bowie a revolted look. "Do you two realise just how desperately pathetic and sad you are? Seriously, Bowie, you need help..."

"Yes, tongues!" Bowie was saying, seemingly oblivious to Cleo's revulsion. "I'm not joking, Kayleigh, it's like he's trying to EAT her or something..." Whatever Kayleigh's response was made Bowie squeal in hysterics, hand reaching to cover her mouth as she shrieked: "Eeeeew!"

Cleo reached to grab hold of the window handle, ready to fling the window open wide.

"I'm going to tell them to get a room!" she declared, utterly appalled, but she had barely pushed the window open before Bowie had thrown down the phone and thrown both arms around the younger girl, clamping a hand down over her mouth.

"Are you MAD?" the blonde hissed as the dark haired girl fought to get free. "We can't let them see us!"

Cleo managed to struggle out of her sister's hold just in time to see the lovebirds come up for air, and she let out an audible sigh of relief when Avery reached to tug Juliette's arms from around his neck, taking hold of her by the hand instead.

"Come on then, let's go!" the sisters heard the man say, turning to lead the way down the driveway, and Juliette giggled as she allowed him to tow her along behind him.

"But you still haven't told me where we're going!" the girl cried excitedly, and her boyfriend glanced back at her with a broad grin.

"Ah, but it's a surprise!"

"Rick! Tell me!"

Cleo's face contorted in revulsion again when he paused to swing around and plant another lingering kiss upon her lips, before murmuring:

"I can't seem to stop kissing you, Jools..."

"Stop trying to change the subject!" Juliette cried, giggling again, and he turned to set off again, insisting:

"It's a surprise! Now come on, we don't have very long..."

"Very long for what?"

"To make you perfect."

Meanwhile, some sixty or so miles to the south, on the other side of the English Channel, in a cramped corridor of the International Floo Network: Calais, full of impatiently babbling tourists, their noisy, hyperactive offspring and a chorus of wailing infants, Dora Lupin was beginning to lose her temper.

"Ah, I see." the tiny, wizened man sat behind the desk was saying as he eyed the passports that had been handed over for his inspection. "Werewolf. Do you have the appropriate documents?"

"Oh bloody hell..." Tonks muttered through gritted teeth as beside her Remus pursed his lips together in frustration and began to search somewhat frantically through his pockets.

"Don't." the werewolf murmured as he abandoned one pocket in favour of another, but his wife ignored him.

"Look," she said to the man behind the desk, strands of pink hair beginning to look distinctly red. "Aren't you supposed to kick up a fuss about fangs and claws when he's trying to LEAVE the country? Not bloody entering it again..."

"We have to ensure all documents are present and correct. Ministry regulations, I'm afraid Madam..."

"The Ministry's regulations are a bloody joke! They're almost as ridiculous as you are, we've been in this queue for over an hour..."

"Here they are." Remus interrupted hurriedly as he at last extracted the requested papers from his pocket and, unfolding them, thrust them under the man's nose.

As the man nodded his approval, Tonks drew breath ready to sigh with relief, only for the elderly wizard to turn and point further down the corridor to where another queue, some three times the length of the first, was snaking its way back from yet another desk.

"If you'd like to proceed and join that queue there, a member of the Illegal Artifacts Team will see you shortly."

As Tonks' eyes bulged in outraged disbelief, Remus hastily snatched up the papers and shoved them unceremoniously back into the pocket of his robes.

"SHORTLY?"

"Thanks very much...come on Dora, let's go!"

Tonks groaned as she allowed him to steer her on down the corridor, and as they came to a halt behind a tall, aristocratic looking wizard who was wearing a velvet top hat, Remus concluded:

"This is hopeless."

"We need to do something." Tonks muttered, squinting down the line of people searchingly. "We're taking far too long."

"I don't think we have a lot of choice..." Remus began, only for Tonks cease her staring in order to thrust a hand into her pocket and pull out her purse.

"Well then, love." the witch told him briskly, reaching to slip a shiny plastic card out of one compartment before shoving the purse back into her pocket. "We'll just have to make up a choice."

Remus turned to offer her a questioning look, just in time to hear her whisper:

"Play along, won't you?"

And suddenly everything seemed to happen very fast. Before he could say a word, Remus felt her reach to grab him by the arm, yanking him downwards, and quick as a flash she had whipped her wand from a pocket and had the end pressed firmly against his throat.

"Dora..." he began in a confused whisper, only for her to loudly declare:

"Shut it, will you? There's no room for complainers in Azkaban, you know!"

And with that Remus found himself frog marched down the corridor, the people in the queue rushing to move out of the way as Tonks shouted:

"Auror Department! Coming through! That's it, move over, move over! Those prison cells aren't filling themselves..."

Before long they had managed to push their way to the front of the queue, where a distinctly flustered looking wizard with a shock of ginger hair was midway through speaking with a short, dumpy looking witch who was carrying an umbrella.

"Stop right there!" the ginger haired wizard demanded, eyes wide in shock at the duo's audacity, and he looked more shocked than ever when Tonks rounded on him with such an incredulous look that the dumpy witch took a small step backwards.

"Excuse me?" Tonks said, pulling Remus to such an abrupt halt that he narrowly avoided tripping over his own feet. The werewolf kept his gaze upon the floor, for he was sure that if he were to look at the utterly insulted expression that his wife was offering the man he might struggle not to snigger.

Tonks drew herself up to a height that was possibly several inches taller than usual, attempting to mimic the look her mother had always worn when she had caught the neighbours' dog urinating on her front lawn.

"You...you can't just...walk past like that!" the ginger haired wizard protested feebly, and Remus gritted his teeth against laughter when Tonks' eyes widened somewhat madly as she cried:

"Oh really?" Hair darkening to deepest crimson, she peered down her nose at the man and asked: "Don't you have ANY idea who it is that you are talking to?" The man was given only a moment to gawp at her, however, before she had thrust the plastic ID card that she was holding under his nose and practically shouted: "I'M THE DEPUTY HEAD OF AURORS!"

There was a rather stunned pause before the man managed to mumble:

"Oh..."

"Yes!" Tonks went on, tossing her head impatiently. "Oh indeed! And you see this here?" she jabbed a finger in Remus' direction, causing half of the queue to stare at him. "Do you realise who this is?"

"Um..."

"This is AUGUSTUS ROOKWOOD!"

At the mention of one of Voldemort's finest, the crowd of people let out a collective gasp. Some of those closest to the desk shuffled backwards a few steps.

The wizard behind the desk was unimpressed.

"That's not Augustus Rookwood." he informed the Auror icily. "I know it isn't, I've seen him in the Prophet..."

"Could you be more stupid if you possibly tried?" Tonks snapped, grip upon her wand tightening so furiously that Remus found himself jabbed in the chin. "Have you never heard of polyjuice potion? D'you think Dark Wizards just wander around like normal when we all know what they look like? Of course they bloody don't! They use DISGUISES!"

As this revelation sent a fearful murmur throughout the crowd, the Auror took a small step forward and leant over the desk, eyes piercing.

"And what's more...are you calling me a liar?"

The wizard's ability to construct coherent sentences had left him as soon as it had appeared.

"Um...well..."

"How DARE YOU!" Tonks shrieked, banging a clenched fist down atop the desk. "Who the bloody hell do you think you are, disrupting the work of the Auror Department like this? I'm telling you now, when I get back to London, Minister Shacklebolt will be hearing from me! I'll have you SACKED!"

"N...now there's...there's really no call for that! If you'd...if you'd just like to go on through those doors over there, Mrs. Lupin..."

"Damn right I would!"

As he found himself being jerked forwards down the corridor again, Remus barely managed to keep himself from muttering some sort of apology to the petrified man. As they reached the doors and Tonks reached to fling them dramatically open, he whispered:

"I think you find it's you who's going to get sacked. Kingsley will kill you for a stunt like this."

"Yeah well," Tonks muttered, at last releasing him as the doors swung shut behind them. "Maybe I'll blame my hormones. Worth a try, don't you think?"

The werewolf audibly groaned.

"Well, that's your career out of the window then. Our family's doomed."

The Auror shot him a sideways scowl as she asked:

"What happened to being enthusiastic?"

"Forgive me, darling, you're right. I really ought be more excited by the prospect of self-imposed financial ruin."

Tonks merely smiled at him, before her thoughts returned to the situation at hand and she let out a frustrated sigh.

"What are we going to do if we're too late?" she asked as they at last rounded a corner and found themselves in a huge, crowded room lined with countless fireplaces of varying sizes.

"I really don't know." Remus murmured as they sidled their way past a family of four whose youngest had chosen a particularly unsuitable spot to throw a tantrum. "I'm not even sure what we'll do if we aren't too late, I've not even thought about it. If only we'd found out earlier, we could have sent Carrie a warning."

"Maybe we still can." Tonks said as they huddled into a fireplace and he reached to grasp hold of a handful of floo powder.

A thick fog seemed to hang before her vision as she stared blankly up at the ceiling, head swimming with emptiness. Something touched her arm.

"Carrie, love? I'm just going to go and pick the boys up from football, alright? I'll leave the phone here for you, so you just give me a ring if you need me, okay? It's alright, I'll be back in half an hour or so, the traffic shouldn't be too bad. There's a glass of water here too."

Footsteps. Fading.

_She's not coming back, you know. She's never coming back..._

Carrie shifted onto her side, drawing her legs up so that she could hug her knees to her chest with a sniff.

_Go on then_, the voice mocked._ Cry, Caroline, cry._

_I would cry too, if I were you. You're going to die in this bed, you know..._

Carrie buried her face into her pillow.

"Leave me alone." she whispered, only for terrible laughter to fill her ears, leaving her head to throb. She shifted back to stare up at the ceiling again, the darkness of the pillow had made her feel more despairing than ever.

_You're fading, you'll fade right away into nothing..._

_Nothing..._

Suddenly the haze before her seemed to brighten to a dazzling shade of silver, and Carrie was forced to squeeze her eyes shut against the light.

_Silly, foolish little girl_, the voice jeered, only for a new, different voice to whisper:

_You're going to be alright, Carrie. Everything is going to be fine..._

Carrie knew that voice from somewhere, she was sure of it...she had heard it before...she just couldn't quite remember...

_Listen to me, Carrie_, a third, deeper voice whispered, making the child jump. _Listen to me very carefully. We're coming. We'll be with you soon._

_Don't be frightened,_ said the second voice, as Mildred's laughter seemed to fade ever so slightly into the background. _Don't be afraid..._

"The diary?"

"Basilisk venom."

"Think we might be running a bit low on that. What about...the diadem?"

"Fiendfyre."

"Well that could work...if you don't mind burning half the neighbourhood to the ground...that just leaves..."

"The locket and the ring, which were both destroyed using the Sword of Gryffindor. And Merlin knows where the goblins have put it by now."

"Bugger..."

"Exactly."

As she burst through the double doors leading out onto the London street beyond, Tonks threw her arms up in frustration and announced to the world at large:

"We're screwed!"

"Not entirely..." Remus began to reason as the two of them took the stone steps down to the pavement two at a time, only for the Auror to lose her footing and narrowly avoid tumbling down the last few steps. As he made a grab for her arm, pulling her back a step to steady her, the werewolf murmured: "Careful, babies don't like to bounce..." he trailed off into silence as she turned to shoot him a grateful smile. Her smile instantly faded at the distinctly concerned look that crossed his face.

"What is it?" Tonks asked, eying the hand that was still clutching hold of her arm with a frown, only for her gaze to snap back to his face and she observed: "Oh, I know that look, don't I?" Wrenching her arm free she folded her firmly across her chest and fixed Remus with such a furious look that he was suddenly sure that he knew exactly how the ginger haired wizard back in Calais had felt.

"What look?" he mumbled, attempting to look bemused, but this only seemed to infuriate his wife further.

"Remus, be honest, you were half a second away from saying It, weren't you?"

"I...don't know what you mean."

"Liar. You were going to say It, weren't you? Admit it! You were going to say: _I think you should stay at home, Dora_."

"I..."

"Don't lie to me, love. Being pregnant doesn't cause me to lose brain cells, you know." Tonks turned to continue on down the steps, muttering: "Bloody noble Gryffindor..."

"Listen," Remus protested as she suddenly froze, mid-step. "I know what you're going to say too, you're going to say I'm being an idiot, you get thrown into all sort of scrapes at work, but...but well that's only because nobody knows you're pregnant. As soon as you tell Kingsley tomorrow he'll take you off active duty and stick you behind a desk..." he trailed off, waiting for her to stubbornly inform him that, in that case, she would just have to keep her mouth and not tell Kingsley anything at all, and so would he if he knew what was good for him, but instead the pink haired Auror cried:

"That's it!" She reached to grab hold of him by the hand, giving his arm a tug to get him moving again as she recalled:

"Gryffindor's sword can appear to those true members of Gryffindor House when they need it most. So, technically it doesn't matter what the goblins have done with it, if you really need it, Remus, it should...well...appear."

As the turned to rush down the street, searching for an appropriate alleyway or quiet side street from which they could apparate, Remus asked:

"And what do we do if it doesn't?"

"Um..." Tonks pursed her lips together in consideration as she suddenly found herself being towed sideways across the crowded street, Remus had spotted a narrow alleyway down the side of a pizza parlor, stacked high with discarded cardboard boxes. "Then...then we burn the street down with fiendfyre?"

"That's highly illegal and, considering it's extremely complex and powerful dark magic we've both only heard spoken of in theory, attempting to conjure and control it would be stupendously dangerous and foolish beyond belief." Remus pointed out as they sidled their way past the boxes and came to a halt. Turning to face his wife with a deep frown, the werewolf muttered: "But we might get desperate, so...sounds like a plan."

And with that, he reached to grab hold of her other hand, and they disapparated with a soft pop.


	17. An Unfortunate Turn Of Events

_Note: A short chapter to set the scene for The Action! There will be just two chapters after this this one and then this story will be complete! (Unless I get bullied into adding another one...we shall see.) I am considering writing a third installment to this series, so please do let me know if you would like to read such a story! Of course, if nobody wants to read it, I won't bother posting! So...let me know! XD_

_This chapter is dedicated to all those anonymous reviewers who I can never reply to when they leave me reviews! Because I appreciate you just the same as everybody else!_

_And of course, thank you to all of my reviewers. You make me smile!_

_Oh and **Kuroida**...take THIS!_

_Disclaimer; I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any profit from this piece of writing. I do, however, own Caroline "Carrie" Winters._

**17: An Unfortunate Turn Of Events**

Far to the north in the highlands of Scotland, it had been raining for several hours.

Or flooding, Remus supposed as he stood hunched before the vast iron gates of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, droplets of water splashing relentlessly down upon him and drenching his clothes. Yes, flooding was a much better word for it.

Beside him, Tonks reached to pull the thin cardigan that she was wearing more tightly around her in a vain attempt to keep warm.

"Sweet Merlin," the witch muttered, tossing her head to try and sweep the sodden pink hair from her eyes. "What part of urgent does that woman not understand?"

"It's the summer holidays, Dora." Remus reminded her, pausing in his hunching to shrug off his jacket and reach to throw it around her shoulders. "I doubt Minerva was here to begin with, give her a chance."

Tonks offered him the briefest grateful smile before turning her attention back to the gates, shifting her feet impatiently.

"You know," she said conversationally as he shoved his hands deep into his pockets, grimacing at the cold water upon his now bare arms. "If we all get through this...something will have to be done. About Carrie, I mean. I thought you said you'd talked to her."

Remus gave a despairing sigh.

"I did. Twice. I told her to be happy with who she was, and I told her the story about the mirror couldn't be true...clearly she has no regard for my advice whatsoever. I should have...done something..."

"What more could you have done, love?" Tonks reached to lay a comforting hand upon his arm. "Like you said before, she's not our daughter. We can give her all the advice in the world, that doesn't mean she'll listen to us. And let's face it, not only is she a muggle, but she's a child too. The odds are stacked against us."

"So what do you propose we actually do?" Remus asked, but at that precise moment they were distracted by the appearance of a dim light through the surrounding mist, and after a moment they found that Minerva McGonnagal was striding down the pathway towards them, lit wand in one hand and large wooden box tucked under her arm.

The couple watched in silence as, with a series of complicated looking waves of the Headmistress' wand, there came a series of loud clunking noises, and the enormous padlock that held the gates shut opened, leaving chains to snake their way free of the iron bars that they had held prisoner. As the gates slowly swung open, MmcGonnagal stepped out onto the road, eying the drenched duo with a raised eyebrow.

"I must say, Remus," she said at last as she came to a halt before them. "This is highly irregular..."

"We know," Remus began hurriedly, "it's bordering on absurd..."

"It certainly is. In fact I doubt the Sorting Hat has left the grounds of Hogwarts since before Gryffindor left it here..."

"We don't really have time to explain..." Remus said, only for Tonks to announce:

"We need to destroy a Horcrux."

McGonnagal's eyes widened to the size of a pair of snitches. Remus could only suppose that this had not been the sort of explanation that she had been expecting. Though quite what one would expect when, completely out of the blue, two people appeared on your doorstep requesting to borrow a priceless and irreplaceable artifact, the wizard couldn't say he really knew.

"It's a long story." he said, eying the box impatiently, and the professor raised an eyebrow and recalled somewhat numbly:

"Yes...it usually is."

"We need the hat to get the sword." Tonks went on, as if it were a very normal and everyday conversation. "You know, like Harry did in the Chamber of Secrets. And we're in a bit of a rush, since our neighbor's daughter is...well, to be frank, probably only a few hours away from..." she trailed off, frowning in an attempt to finish the sentence, but the words seemed to get stuck in her throat.

"We urgently need the hat." Remus concluded quietly, reaching for Tonks' hand, and McGonnagal allowed herself to remained shocked for just a moment longer, before she finally returned to her senses and held the box out for Remus to take.

"I don't suppose you've bothered to tell the Ministry all about this?" she asked as he accepted the box and, as she had done, tucked it under his arm.

"We'd love to, had we the time." Tonks told her, heart-shaped face weary, and the Headmistress immediately said:

"I shall contact them immediately."

"Thank you, Minerva." Remus said, adjusting his grip upon the box, and Tonks had barely mumbled similar thanks before the pair of them disappeared with a pop.

Minerva McGonnagal stood for a long moment, staring at the empty space that her two fellow Order members had occupied, before heaving a disbelieving sigh and turning back towards the school gates.

_I'm sure this wasn't part of the deal when we all willingly joined the Order all those years ago_, she thought to herself as she the gates swung shut behind her and began to lock themselves again. _Albus said we were to take on Voldemort. And yet here we are, years after his fall, still galavanting around and dragging one another into trouble of one sort of another. _

Admittely, Tonks had looked decidedly worse for wear having cut her holiday short, her face had been very pale and she had looked, to Minerva's mind, rather sickly.

And yet Remus, who always spoke so gladly of peace time, had looked...different. Worried? Yes. A little frantic? Yes...

But Minerva could not quite recall the last time that he had looked so positively _alive_.

The Headmistress heaved a sigh, shaking her head.

Some people. They really were beyond belief...

And so it was that the two Lupins appeared at the end of their street in Eddington, ready to put their distinctly vague plan into action.

The first thing that Tonks did was to stumble forward a step and lean to vomit into a grass verge.

"Are you alright?" Remus asked her, still grasping hold of her hand, and she hastily straightened up, rummaging around in her pocket to pull out a tissue.

"Yep, fine..." she muttered, swiping the tissue hurriedly across her lips. "Perfectly fine...maybe I'll stick to the floo next time."

"They do recommend it." he agreed as she let go of his hand to draw her wand, vanishing the tissue with a flick.

They both turned to stare down the street, pausing for a brief moment to savour the calm, soothing atmosphere of early evening, glad of the lack of rain, before setting off side by side down the street at a near-run.

At first they had both thought the street empty, but as they neared the house some four doors up from their own, they spotted a teenage girl with long blonde hair, perched upon a garden wall. They might have missed her entirely, for she was sat beside a tall, overgrown hedge that was overhanging onto the pavement, obscuring the houses further along the road. But her bright red jacket gave her away, and the couple slowed their pace a little as she glanced up from an intent examination of her carefully varnished nails to watch them dash past her.

Luckily for the Lupins, Juliette Downton was much too preoccupied fussing over her appearance to give the passersby much more thought than: _How on earth did they get that wet?_ And then:_ I wonder what hair dye that woman uses to get hair that bright_. Then she went back to wondering: _I wonder what's taking Rick so long._ She smiled to herself. Juliette liked surprises.

There was hope. There was always hope...

Carrie kept her gaze fixated upon the photographs that she had tacked to her bedroom wall. They seemed to swim before her eyes, yet she could still make out shapes. The one closest to her was bright and cheery. She tried to focus her gaze upon the image, a blurry mass of blue and green, a summer's day she decided, two blobs of colour in the middle...there was...turquoise...

It was the photograph that somebody had taken the previous summer, she recalled, delighting in her ability to recall anything at all. She and her friend had been sat under the tree in his back garden...

_You won't see him again, you know..._

Carrie tried best to pretend that the voice wasn't there.

That had been a fun day. It had been the day that he had first attempted to explain to her the rules of Quidditch. They had played catch with that ball of his...the red one...she couldn't remember what it was called...

_Not long now, Caroline Winters..._

That was what the red blob was, on her lap, she had been holding the ball...it was called...it was called...

_You'll never remember. Not now._

It was the ball the Chasers used to score goals. It had a funny name. It was called...

What was it called?

_You'll never remember. You won't remember anything at all. There will only be nothing..._

That wasn't true. It couldn't be true. She would always remember some things. Simple things, like...her name. Her name was Carrie. Caroline Winters. She was the youngest of three children, she had two brothers. Their names were Thomas and...and...Theodore. No. No, that wasn't right...

She could hear laughter, cruel, mocking laughter.

It wasn't Theodore. Theodore was somebody else...she just wasn't quite sure who.

And her other brother's name was...it was...

_Lost. And you'll never remember. _

Carrie felt much too tired to hold back tears, she simply let them cascade down her face, and she wondered if she might just give up. Give up thinking. Give up trying to remember. Give up living...

It was at that precise moment that the door to her bedroom was flung open and heavy footsteps invaded her mind, getting closer, closer...

And at that precise moment, Remus and Tonks came to a skidding halt atop the Winters' empty driveway, sending gravel spraying in all directions. Wand at the ready, Tonks hopped up onto the step and pointed at the door's lock, muttering:

"Alohomora."

Nothing happened.

Frowning deeply, the Auror reached to test the door handle and, finding the door locked tight, muttered the spell again.

But the door remained locked.

"What in Merlin's name...?" the witch murmured as Remus set the box he was holding down upon the ground, before stooping to examine the lock with a deep frown.

And back inside her bedroom, Carrie Winters found a vaguely familiar face invading her blury sight as Richard Avery loomed over the child's bed, reaching to grasp her firmly by the wrist as he demanded to know:

"What have you done with the Mirror?"


	18. Pretty, Pretty Death

_Note: So here it is, the big finale! I hope that you enjoy it as much as the rest of the story! _

_Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any money from this piece of writing. I do, however, own Caroline "Carrie" Winters. _

**18: Pretty, Pretty Death**

Carrie attempted to open her mouth to say...something, anything, but her jaw didn't seem to want to cooperate. Instead, she simply stared blankly up at looming face, heart racing in her chest.

Don't tell him, the voice demanded.

The face contorted furiously and the grip upon her wrist tightened suddenly, though she hadn't the energy to flinch.

"Tell me what you've done with it!" Avery cried, gritting his teeth in anger when the child simply burst into tears.

Carrie sobbed.

She sobbed from fear of the stranger who was shouting at her. She sobbed for fear of the voice that was hissing poisonous words in her head. She sobbed for despair at her weakness. And she sobbed because she was suddenly certain that there really was no hope. No hope whatsoever.

"That mirror wasn't yours to take!" Avery told her, giving her arm a firm shake. "I've been searching for it for weeks! I found it first! It should be mine! Tell me where you've put it!" When she failed to say anything his face tinged red with fury and he reached to grasp hold of her by the shoulders, shaking her again as he cried: "I need that mirror! Now if you don't stop this nonsense and answer me, so help me, I'm going to..."

CRASH!

As Avery's head whipped around to stare towards the bedroom door, Carrie squeezed her eyes shut at the sudden noise, the breath catching in her throat as she drew in a gasp of surprise.

"What the bloody hell was that?" the man hissed, just as a voice from downstairs called:

"CARRIE?"

The voice sounded vaguely familiar, and Carrie sluggishly opened her eyes at sound, just in time to see Avery draw a wand from his pocket and turn back to her.

"Is that your mother? TELL ME, IS THAT YOUR MOTHER?"

Carrie wanted to tell him that she wasn't really sure, but she was much too preoccupied by the furious whisperings in her head, they were growing louder, louder, consuming...

"FOR MERLIN'S SAKE, SPEAK!" Avery demanded furiously, gripping his wand in frustration. "Is that your mother or isn't it? It's a simple question!"

"No, it's not her mother." said a voice from the doorway, and as Avery spun around to look at the speaker, Carrie tried to move her head to the side to look too. "It's a whole lot worse than that. Now, I strongly suggest that you put that wand down."

Carrie could just about make out not one, but two figures stood in the doorway. The speaker was a woman dressed in dark denim jeans and a rather bedraggled blue cardigan. She had bright pink hair, and both she and the man stood behind her appeared to be soaking wet. Also, Carrie noticed, they were both stood with arms raised, each pointing a wand directly at the stranger.

They looked...very familiar.

There was a long pause as the three adults simply stood, staring at one another, and Carrie felt such a rush of apprehension that even Mildred's voice seemed to become distant.

"Seriously." the woman said. "Put the wand down."

Nobody moved.

"Look," the man beside the bed said, "I don't know who you people are, but..."

"Who we are isn't important." the man beside the door interrupted, the sound of his voice stirring something in the back of Carrie's mind, and the woman agreed:

"That's right, it isn't. A much more important question is: who the bloody hell are you?"

"You wouldn't happen to be Richard Avery, by any chance, would you?" her companion asked, and again Carrie felt something stir in the back of her mind...it was almost like...a memory...

"How do you know my name?" Avery asked, sounding distinctly agitated, and the other man calmly informed him:

"It was just a hunch."

"Oh Merlin...you...you work for the Ministry, don't you?" Avery guessed, and Carrie was sure that he took a small step backwards.

"Actually," the woman said cheerily, "I'm on holiday. Listen, we really don't have time for this. Go on love, let's get this over and done with..."

"You can't have it." Avery informed them bluntly, and Carrie jumped to feel his free hand reaching to grasp hold of her by the arm.

The woman's expression was incredulous.

"What?"

"The mirror. You can't have it, I won't let you!"

"I think you'll find that nobody's going to have it..." the woman began, only for Avery to suddenly jerk backwards, pulling Carrie towards him, his wand jabbing her threateningly in the throat and demand:

"Put down your wands!"

Head lolling to one side as she found herself pulled up into a sitting position, Carrie's head swam at the movement and she watched in panic as her rescuers exchanged a brief glance before slowly bending to place their wands upon the floor.

"And the box!" Avery insisted, wand poking Carrie's neck again in emphasis when the man hesitated to do as he asked.

"I don't think you understand." the man said as he straightened up, hands held up in surrender. "That mirror...it isn't what you think it is..."

"I know exactly what it is!" Avery announced passionately, positively glowering at the couple. "It is the path to perfection! It is all I have desired this whole long year..."

"Believe me, you are terribly mistaken..."

"I found it before those children did! I found it and I will not have it taken from me! Not now! Not when I have found it again! It has been difficult, getting one of them on their own to extract the mirror's whereabouts. But then I caught the boy on his own, I made him tell me where it was..."

"Sweet Merlin..." Carrie heard the woman whisper, her eyes widening in horror. "What did you do to Teddy?"

"And now I am so close! I will not have you stop me!"

"You're making a mistake!" the man insisted, lowering one hand to lay a cautioning hand upon the woman's shoulder. "You have to listen to us, that mirror can't turn muggles magical! It's a Horcrux!"

As Mildred let out a shriek of hysterical, unhinged laughter, Carrie screwed her eyes shut as Avery turned his back on reason, shaking the girl yet again more violently than ever.

"TELL ME WHERE YOU'VE PUT IT!" he demanded as the entire bed shuddered.

And Carrie held her breath as she felt the movement dislodge the mirror from it's hiding place beneath her pillow, brushing her arm as it slipped from the mattress and down onto the carpeted floor.

At the sight of the object of his desire, Avery abruptly released the girl, leaving her to flop back down upon the bed, before he stooped to snatch it up, ignoring the shouts of protest, and Carrie turned her head just in time to watch him straighten, face triumphant as he held the mirror aloft...

Only for him to let out a sudden shriek of agony, the mirror flying from his grasp, the flesh upon his hand burst and blistered an ugly shade of red.  
And suddenly everything seemed to happen very suddenly. Taking advantage of their opponent's misfortune, Carrie's rescuers leapt into action, snatching up their discarded belongings and, with a deft flick of her wand, the pink haired witch sent a bolt of blindingly bright red light shooting across the room towards the cursing wizard. Carrie gritted her teeth in terror as the light shot towards her, only to rebound off of thin air with a clumsy swipe of Avery's wand, whizzing off at an angle and straight through the bedroom window with an almighty crash.

And so began the light show, a mass of dazzling spells streaking back and forth across the room, smashing into shelves and sending objects flying in all directions, and at the sight of the furious duel between witch and wizard, Carrie reached to clamp her hands over her eyes, a shield against the dizzying display, Mildred's laughter still ringing deafeningly in her ears.

_Pretty, pretty, pretty_, Mildred's voice sang as Carrie felt paralyzing fear douse her like cold sweat, _and so close! So very, very close..._

_You could reach out and touch the lights, Caroline Winters. _

_Or they might reach out to touch you instead._

_It would be a pretty death..._

A sudden weight upon the mattress made Carrie jump in alarm, and she dared open her eyes so that she could peer through the gaps in her fingers, breathing ragged and frantic.

And she found herself looking at...

Remus. It was Remus! She remembered, now...

And for a glorious moment Carrie was sure that she hadn't truly lost her mind as she watched the wizard scramble into a more upright position from his mad dive across the room, reaching to throw open the lid of the box that he had been carrying...

But then he reached into the box and pulled out a ragged, old, dusty wizard's hat and hastily yanked it firmly down onto his head, before beginning to mutter in a distinctly desperate tone:

"Help me, help me, help me...please..."

It was then that Carrie's euphoria was instantly snuffed out. Clearly she was having some soft of hallucination, some form of delusion, because she had never seen such a bizarre sight in all her life.

She had definitely lost her mind.

Either that or Remus had lost his...

Remus squeezed his eyes shut in concentration, free hand reaching to grasp a fistful of duvet in frustration as he willed the sword to appear...

_I need the sword. I need the sword. I really need the sword...help me, please help me..._

Nothing seemed to be happening...

Why wasn't it working?

He tried to think back to what Harry had said about the time he had managed to pull the sword out of the Sorting Hat, but he couldn't think of anything helpful.

_I just put it on_, Harry had said,_ and then it was just there! It nearly knocked me out cold..._

THUD!

A dull ache blossomed upon Remus' head and he struggled not to toppled backwards off the bed as he gritted his teeth against a groan. He reached to yank the hat from his head with one hand, careful not to drop his wand as he reached to grasp hold of the sword's hilt with the other.

And Carrie watched in dazed fascination as the wizard pulled a long, shiny, ruby encrusted sword out of a hat.

She had heard of rabbits, but really, this was something else entirely...

Remus stumbled clumsily to his feet, head still pounding from the blow, before taking a few careful steps forward, coming to a halt with the mirror at his feet. Carrie watched with wide eyes as, wand gripped precariously between two fingers, he grasped the sword firmly in both hands, the blade facing downwards, before raising it determinedly up above his head...

The duel came to a very abrupt end as the witch was forced to dive sideways to avoid an incoming hex, giving Avery just long enough to turn and witness the werewolf's pose with wide, horror-stricken eyes.

"NO!" the caretaker shrieked, and before Remus could bring the blade down upon the mirror's surface there came a loud bang and a bolt of dark blue light shot from Avery's wand.

Carrie watched in numb silence as the spell struck Remus directly in the chest, and he was thrown clear off his feet, colliding into the wall behind him with a thud before crumpling to the floor at the foot of Carrie's bed, the sword clattering to the floor beside him.

A jet of red light shot across the room, narrowly missing Avery's head before striking the wall beside the bed, and Carrie watched in horror as a few of the blurry pictures upon the wall were blasted into cinders.

"You're not listening to us!" the child heard the witch shout from the other side of the room, and Carrie turned just in time to see the now upright woman draw her wand back for a second attack. "It's a HORCRUX!" she shrieked, thrusting her arm forward, and Carrie turned to bury her face into her pillow as the furious duel began anew.

_Pretty, pretty, pretty..._

_Such a pretty death..._

Weight shifting against the end of the bed, tugging at the duvet made Carrie dare to turn and peer towards the corner where Remus had landed, and the child spotted the werewolf dragging himself up into a crouch, and as he leant to retrieve the elaborate blade from the floor the muggle's stomach twisted in agitation at the blurry sight of scarlet seeping through his damp hair and dripping down the back of his neck.

_Drip, drip, drip... _

_Such a pretty scarlet. Such a pretty death..._

Remus scrambled forward, ducking low to avoid a stray stunning spell that left him to overbalance and fall flat upon his stomach.

Mildred's laughter was becoming unbearable, Carrie gritted her teeth against the shrill, cruel noise as Remus reached for the mirror, fingertips brushing it's edge, only for him to hastily withdraw his hand, the brief contact causing his fingers to burn and blister.

Carrie stared with wide, horrified eyes as the werewolf paused to examine his hand with a frown, and at his creased brow, the child wanted to scream.

_He won't help you. He won't ever help you..._

_You're going to die, Caroline Winters. And it shall be an ugly death. _

But Remus had promised. Carrie knew that he had, she had heard him, she had heard his voice. He had promised that he was coming. He was going to help her. He was going to save her...

Carrie drew in the deepest gasp of air that she could muster, concentrating with all her might as she reached to wet her lips, Mildred's voice fading into the back of her mind as she managed to shout:

"REMUS! HELP ME!"

For a brief moment, the werewolf merely turned to stare in astonishment at the hoarse, rasping demand, but then he turned back to the mirror and, with no hesitation at all, reached forward to pick it up.

It felt as though his hand had been set on fire, excruciating burning pain that came so suddenly that despite expecting it Remus nearly dropped the mirror again. As the stinging, blistering sensation began to slowly creep up his arm, he gritted his teeth in concentration, pulling the mirror towards him. Dropping it to the floor just in front of him, he once again reached to grasp Gryffindor's sword in both hands, the cool metal soothing against blistered skin. He raised it up into the air and as he did so Carrie found that Mildred's laughter suddenly halted...

And with that, Remus brought the blade's tip smashing down upon the mirror's surface, and as she watched the mirror crack and shatter, a earsplitting scream pierced Carrie's ears and she was forced to reach and clamp her hands over them in a desperate attempt to block out the noise.

The duel came to an abrupt pause at the sound, and as Remus slumped to the floor, Carrie felt an odd sensation, as if a great weight had been lifted from her chest, and her mind seemed suddenly to clear, the world came into focus as though she had just woken from a dream.

Rushed footsteps sounded, and as she blinked away the last of the mist Carrie saw Dora – because it was Dora, of course it was – dash across the room, coming to a halt at Remus' side, Avery turning to stare in complete horror at the mirror's remains, his rage rendering him momentarily immobile.

Tonks reached to grab hold of Remus by the shoulder, dragging him somewhat roughly into a sitting position, and the werewolf was quick to grope around in search of the wand that he had dropped to the floor.

Carrie turned back to look at Avery, her heart hammering in panic as he turned to face her, expression so utterly livid that Carrie felt more afraid than ever.

"This is all YOUR fault!" he screeched, and Carrie hurried to sit up in bed, so consumed by fear that she did not notice the sudden weight upon the bed beside her.

Arm shaking in fury, Avery slowly raised his wand, pointing directly at Carrie's face, and down upon the floor Remus finally snatched up his own wand, head spinning as he took shaky aim at the other wizard.

It was at that moment that Carrie felt a pair of arms being flung around her middle, and a voice in her ear whispered:

"Wotcher, Carrie love..."

"STUPEFY!" both wizards shouted simultaneously, and Carrie gasped in horror at the sight of Avery's spell whizzing through the air towards her. She was completely unaware of Remus' effort that struck Avery directly in the chest as the red light got closer, closer...

And she swore that she could almost hear Mildred's voice yet again.

_Such a pretty, pretty death..._

But just as the bright light seemed to fill her vision, Carrie suddenly felt a sickening pulling sensation and quite suddenly she found that she was...gone. Her legs flopped downwards as the bed disappeared from beneath her and she found her bare feet upon crunching gravel. Blinking, Carrie found relief wash over her at the cool breeze of the world outside of the bedroom, euphoria at the realisation that she was safe, that it was all over...

But almost as soon as the relief had come it was gone again as she felt the tight arms around her being wrenched free of their hold, and a bone-chilling shriek of pain filled the cool summer evening air.


	19. Aftermath

_Note: So here we are at the final curtain! I would like to say thank you ever so much to everybody who has been kind enough to review this story, you really do make me smile! I have decided that yes, I will be writing a sequel, and I shall probably be putting up a poll to help me decide upon it's title (and plot). I did plan to do so straight away, but I don't have the time to think it through quite yet, so...keep an eye out for that if you would like to have your say! _

_I am aware that this ending may result in a few sad faces...but I have had it planned for such a long time that I'm afraid I won't be changing it now! _

_I would also like to say thank you to **Kuroida** for engaging in such an enthusiastic update war, not to mention the more recent cliffhanger battle! I have really enjoyed myself! As for the rest of you, I would like to point out that Kuroida is just as responsible for my evil cliffhangers as I am – she PROVOKED ME! So, show your fury by going to read her wonderful fics and leaving her as great reviews as you have for me! XD_

_This is the longest note EVER. But then again that is rather fitting, isn't it? Since this is the longest chapter ever too!_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any profit from this piece of writing._

**19: Aftermath**

When Juliette Elizabeth Downton had been fifteen years old, the world as she had known it had changed beyond recognition. And ever since then, Juliette had refused to recognise it. She was an only child, and before that terrible day some week after her fifteenth birthday, she had been an awfully spoilt child. Her father, a highly successful architect, had treated her like a princess, buying her everything that she could possibly ask for, and Juliette had lived a life of luxury. But for many years she was blissfully unaware that her father's business was slowly failing, until on that fateful day her father had admitted that the business was bankrupt. The constant gifts and pocket money had come to an abrupt end, replaced by lectures about money and just how spoilt she was. For a time Juliette had had not much at all, but slowly the family began to recover, her father got a job at a new firm and the money began to slowly return to the bank. Come the time she turned eighteen, Juliette's parents had gone back to their indulgent ways, they bought their daughter anything and everything that they could afford for her. But the trouble was, they simply couldn't quite afford what they had done before.

Which was why Juliette was so charmed by Richard.

She had met him in town some six months ago, having stormed out of her house in a rage because her father had refused to buy her a new pair of shoes that she had spotted on the Internet. Bored and with nowhere to go, she had wandered to the high street, where a group of young men a couple or so years her senior had been gathered outside the newsagents. One of them, a short, tubby looking man with sleek brown hair and a distinctly dirty smile, had called out a lewd comment to her as she walked past them, and Juliette had been utterly revolted by both him and his friends' subsequent laughter. She had heard one of them running after her, and had been prepared to turn around and give whoever it was a good slap around the face, only to find when she did spin around around look that a blonde haired, handsome young man was there, his expression not jeering in the slightest. He had apologized profusely for his friend's disgraceful behavior, but claimed that if she did insist on being so beautiful then such incidents were bound to occur every now and again, and then he had asked if she might like to join him for a cup of coffee.

And Juliette had said yes without much hesitation at all. She had never regretted her decision for even a second, for it turned out that Richard Avery was not only dashingly handsome, but also the sort of young man who made it his business to treat his girlfriend as though she was royalty. He showered her with gifts and romantic gestures, and it was not long before Juliette found herself falling hopelessly in love with him. She was thoroughly enjoying being spoilt rotten again.

But that evening, as she sat upon the garden wall waiting for Richard to return with what he promised would be the most wonderful surprise she had ever seen, Juliette had absolutely no idea that she was about to experience what was quite possibly the more bizarre and horrible series of surprises that she had ever known.

It started with a scream. A horrible, pained sound that disturbed Juliette's contemplation of the shade of fake tan that she had smeared herself in the day beforehand.

The muggle glanced up at the sound of the noise, frowning deeply as she wondered who on earth would be making such a terrible noise, only to jump at the sound of a child screaming:

"HELP! SOMEBODY HELP!"

Juliette jumped up from her perch upon the wall and dashed up the street towards the source of the noise, wobbling precariously in her high heeled shoes. As she neared the source of the sound, she could hear a muffled, shuddering sobbing sound, and when she caught sight of the scene upon the Winters' driveway she came to an abrupt halt, eyes widening in shock.

"Oh. My. GOD!" she shrieked, hand coming to cover her mouth as she stared at the scene.

Upon the gravel lay the woman she had seen dashing past her some short while earlier, curled up into herself, her arms hugging her stomach as she buried her face in the folds of her cardigan, sobbing somewhat hysterically to herself.

Hadn't her hair been pink before? Juliette had been sure it had been, not the dull shade of brown that it was now. Perhaps it had been a trick of the light...

Crouched over the woman was a young girl of around twelve, she was dressed in pale pink pyjamas and her hair looked distinctly greasy and unwashed, she was gripping the woman's arm and babbling in a distinctly panicked fashion under her breath. Juliette took a few uncertain steps towards the scene, causing the girl to turn around to look at her.

"Is she alright?" Juliette asked, and the girl's face crumpled miserably as she complained:

"I...I don't know...what to...to do...!"

"Should I phone for an ambulance?" Juliette asked, mind beginning to get over the shock a little. She hurried to the girl's side and was just reaching into her pocket to draw out her mobile phone when she heard footsteps at the entrance of the house and she looked up to see who was approaching.

"Oh my god!" she said again, freezing mid-reach, the phone immediately forgotten.

The doorway of the house in front of her appeared to be missing a door entirely. And, perhaps more strange than that, in the gap itself was stood a tall, bedraggled looking man, a large box tucked under one arm and in his other hand...

A sword.

An enormous, shiny, distinctly sharp looking sword.

As the man seemingly froze in the doorway, staring at the trio upon the drive with increasingly agitated eyes, Juliette stared right back at him.

"Is that...is that a SWORD?" she cried, just in case this was just another, be it far more elaborate, trick of the light.

The sound of her voice seemed to knock the man out of a daze and he immediately made a dash towards the woman upon the floor, coming to another stunned halt as he stared down at the sorry scene.

"What on earth is going on?" Juliette asked him, and he glanced up at her briefly and mumbled:

"Burglary...the um...the house was...was being burgled..."

"What so...so you decided to go in there with a...a SWORD?" Juliette cried in bewilderment as the man glanced at the young girl, who seemed to find his gaze deeply upsetting, she burst into tears. "I mean...where did you even get it from? That's like...an illegal offensive weapon or...or something!"

"Actually," the man told her, sounding distinctly irritated by her questioning. "I was rescuing it. It's a priceless antique."

And with that, he threw both the box and the priceless antique to the ground and dropped to his knees. Juliette watched, lips pursed worriedly as he gathered the sobbing heap of woman up into his arms, hugging her tightly as he murmured:

"It's alright, it's alright darling, I've got you...where does it hurt?"

The girl reached to bury her head in her hands, clutching strands of chestnut hair in agitation as the woman merely whimpered something unintelligible.

"Look at me, Dora." Juliette heard the man whisper, reaching to prise the woman's face away from her arms with one hand so that she would stare at him through watery, puffy eyes. "Look at me. Where does it hurt?"

The mousy haired woman merely glanced down at herself and as the man glanced down too, Juliette followed his gaze.

"Oh my god..." the blonde haired teen muttered yet again at the sight of glistening blood staining the front of the woman's dark jeans.

"No, no, no..." the man whispered as the woman buried her face into his shoulder, crying harder than ever. "It's...it's alright. Let's...let's not panic..."

"I...I've...I've killed her!" Juliette heard the woman choke, and both the man and child flinched.

"Shhh! Shhh, don't...don't say that..."

"B..but I have! I have!"

"Shhhh..." the man tightened his grip upon the woman and as he looked up, Juliette thought he looked suddenly pale.

"Is there anything I can do?" the teen asked, glancing down to realise that she still had one hand in her pocket, clasped around her phone. "Should I...should I call an ambulance?"

"A what?" the man asked, clearly dazed before he gave himself a little shake and hurriedly mumbled: "Oh...no. No thank you. I...I think..." he paused, drawing in a deep, calming breath before he turned to look at the quietly crying child. "Carrie, you get the...the hat and the sword..."

Juliette watched, biting a nail as the child stumbled over to retrieve the enormous, ruby encrusted blade, struggling to fit the large box under her arm.

"Do you want me to take that?" she asked the child, but the man immediately said:

"She's fine, thank you."

Juliette turned back to him with a frown, watching as he struggled to his feet, dragging the reluctant woman up after him.

"What's the...the point?" the woman complained into his shoulder, her legs limp as she made no effort to stand. "What's the bloody point?"

"Wait and see what the hea...doctors say." the man insisted through gritted teeth as he set about dragging her across the drive towards the house next door.

"I KNOW WHAT THEY'RE GOING TO BLOODY SAY!" his burden wailed, and with that she burst into fresh tears, complaining: "You're going to hate me!"

"Don't be ridiculous." he said as behind him the girl reached the neighboring house's doorstep and turned to watch the couple's slow progression with wide, mournful eyes. "Besides," the man said as he staggered a little on the uneven ground. "What happened to being optimistic?"

For somebody who was supposedly optimistic, Juliette thought he looked remarkable close to tears himself.

"Are you sure there's nothing I can do?" she called after them as they joined the girl upon the front step, the man reaching awkwardly into his pocket, no doubt in search of his keys. He paused in his search to look back at her, deciding:

"Well...yes, I suppose there is. Carrie's mother will be home soon...I wonder, would you wait for her? Tell her, when she comes, that there was a break in? And tell her not to worry about Carrie, she's with us."

"Sure, 'course I will..." Juliette agreed as he went back to searching for his keys, seemingly finding them a moment later for the door swung open. "I um...I hope...I hope everything's alright..." she added rather uncertainly, and the man told her:

"You're very kind." And with that, he staggered inside, the girl dragging her feet miserably after him. The door swung shut and quite suddenly Juliette found herself alone, the street suddenly silent once again.

"Well..." she told the quiet world at large. "That was...unusual."

She hadn't expected any sort of response, but suddenly a voice to her right made her start so much that she almost tripped over in her heels.

"Jools!"

Juliette spun around to face the door-less doorway in surprise, and there, stood just as the man had been some minute earlier, was Richard.

"Rick!" she cried, making a beeline for her distinctly flustered looking boyfriend, as he stared at her with wide, distinctly irritated eyes. "Oh my god! Were you in there too? What went on in there? Did you help rescue that girl or something? Did you see the woman? Oh my god, there was so much blood, it was HORRIBLE!" As she reached him, throwing her arms tightly around his neck, Juliette was so busy babbling incessantly that she did not register the fury on his face. "I can't believe you went in there!" she exclaimed, leaning to press as kiss to his firmly pursed lips. "You're SO brave!"

Richard reached to grasp hold of her arms and pull them free from their stranglehold around his neck.

"Go home, Jools." he mumbled, pushing past her so that he could set off down the driveway, shoving his hands deep into his pockets. Juliette turned to stare after him with a deep frown.

"D'you think you might be in shock or something?" she asked, hopping off of the step and hurrying after him. "You didn't get hurt or anything, did you?"

"I'm fine." he grunted, and as she came to his side she reached to slip her hand through the crook of his arm. "I just...fell over...might've hit my head..."

"Oh my god!"

"It's fine. It's nothing."

"Well then, are you going to walk me home?"

"No."

"No...?" Juliette turned to offer him a hurt look when suddenly light flooded the drive and the two of them were forced to shuffle to the side to avoid the car that was turning into the drive.

"Oh god..." Juliette muttered as she watched the car come to a halt and Mrs. Winters and her two sons began to climb out of the car. "I'm going to have to tell them..." she trailed off into silence at the sound a series of alarmed exclamations as Mrs. Winters froze, midway through pushing her car door shut. The two boys halted in their squabbling to stare at their lack of a front door, Juliette could have sworn that she heard one of them mutter:

"Wow!"

"Excuse me!" Juliette called hurriedly, letting go of Richard's arm and hurrying over to the horror-stricken mother. "Excuse me, it's alright, you've been burgled!"

Mrs. Winters turned to stare at the blonde haired girl with wide, uncomprehending eyes.

"It's ALRIGHT?" she cried, throwing up her hands in agitation. "It's...ALRIGHT? Oh gosh...CARRIE!" She turned to make a dash for the house, only for Juliette to hurriedly amend:

"I mean you've been burgled but don't worry! Your neighbors are looking after your daughter! She went with them!" she pointed over towards the house next door, feeling relief herself when Mrs. Winters' panic faltered and she let out a huge sigh of relief. "They heard a commotion or something, you see." Juliette explained as one of the boys reached to put a comforting arm around his mother. "They went in to investigate, them and my boyfriend Richard here." She gestured over her shoulder to where Richard stood, scowling. "They got your daughter out. Oh, and the antique sword!"

"Antique...sword?" said one of the boys, eyes widening in amazement as he turned to fix his mother with an expectant look. "Mum, you never told me we had one of those!"

Mrs. Winters ignored him.

"Well I don't know anything about that," she said, smiling over at Richard, who simply continued to scowl, "but I'm ever so grateful! Gosh, boys, we'll have to bake the Lupins the biggest cake imaginable! What on earth would we have done without them!"

"I thought they were on holiday." one of the boys pointed out as Juliette turned to hurry back over to Richard, who had turned to stare at the house next door with wide, panicked eyes.

"Well we must count ourselves lucky they came home when they did!" Mrs. Winters was saying as Juliette came to a halt before her boyfriend, lips pursed together worriedly.

"Are you alright?" she asked, reaching to lay a hand upon his arm. "You look...worried."

"Did...did she say Lupin, Jools?"

"Yeah, why, do you know them?"

"Shit...no, no! No, I don't...I...I have to go..."

"What?"

But before she could say another word, he had pulled his arm free of her and made to dash off down the street.

"Richard! Wait!" Juliette shouted after him, but he simply ran faster.

Carrie watched in dull silence as the witch before her finished scribbling on the clipboard that she was holding. Dropping the clipboard and quill pen down upon a little side table, the witch reached to straighten her lime green healer's robes as she concluded:

"Well, you're an extremely lucky girl, Caroline!"

Carrie stared down at the oversized pair of Teddy's trainers that Remus had flung in her direction when they had stumbled into the Lupins' house some hour earlier. She couldn't say that she felt terribly lucky.

"Few days rest, some good food and plenty of water, that's what you need." the healer was saying as she fussed with a shelf full of glass bottles containing an array of sickening looking substances. "That and a few generous doses of this!"

Carrie found one bottle thrust under her nose and when the smell of it gave her the urge to sneeze she recognised it as the same potion that Molly had made for Remus the day that Teddy had discovered the book of legends in Avery's cupboard. She accepted the bottle without a smile, sliding off of the chair that she had been perched on as the healer bustled over towards the door.

"Take you back to Mr. Lupin then, shall I?" the healer offered, and Carrie managed a feeble nod. She was not entirely keen on returning to the corridor in which she and Remus had been sat some while earlier. She and the healer had left him midway through scribbling a note to his mother-in-law on the back of a hospital leaflet warning against the dangers of a vast array of hideous diseases that Carrie had never heard of before. He had barely spoken a word to the girl since he had bundled both she and his wife into the floo and they had arrived at St. Mungo's. Once Tonks had been whisked away by a trio of serious faced healers, Remus and Carrie had been left to sit impatiently out in the corridor to wait for news. They had sat in agonizing silence, he so hunched in his chair that she could get no clear view of his face, and she sat swinging her legs nervously back and forth, eying him fretfully. After a short while a healer had appeared clutching a shallow bowl in which was set couple of tubs of a tar-like substance, a cloth and what seemed to be a never ending length of linen bandage. Carrie had watched in minor interest as she filled the basin with water that shot in a spray from her wand, before carefully washing the blood from the werewolf's head, smothering his blistered hand in the tar before swathing both his head and hand in bandages. As she had worked, she had attempted cheerful conversation, she'd commented on how nice the weather had been and how nice it always was this time of year, what with all the flowers being out and the birds always singing. Neither Remus or Carrie had made any attempt at polite conversation in return. Instead, he had simply stared blankly at the doors in front of him, and Carrie had continued to watch him, assuring herself that his eyes were only very slightly watery, and they were surely that way from the pain of the healer's probing fingers and nothing more.

When Carrie returned to the corridor, she found it so crammed full of people that she could not spot Remus amongst them at all. Seemingly one note from the werewolf had left the entire Potter-Weasley clan to descend upon St. Mungo's Hospital within the blink of an eye.

"Alright there, Carrie?" Ginny Potter murmured as Carrie came to a halt beside her, and the child found herself with an odd urge to laugh at such a mundane question that she could not begin to comprehend the answer to. She attempt a smile at the red-haired woman who was busy rocking her baby daughter back and forth in an attempt to make Lily fall asleep. James and Albus were sat upon plastic chairs behind her, for once silent, and beside them were Ron and Hermione Weasley, each with a child upon their knees. Carrie was just glancing around at the rest of the people who were crowded into the narrow space when it occurred to her that they all seemed to be staring at her. Except Harry, who didn't seem to be there at all, and, Carrie saw as she sidled past Arthur Weasley at the edge of the crowd, Molly who seemed much more preoccupied with somebody else.

"You don't need to worry about anything, dear!" the Weasley matriarch was telling an ashen-faced Remus as she stood at his side, one arm around his slumped shoulders. "Harry'll have it all sorted, he's gone to tell Mrs. Winters where you've taken Carrie, so you've no trouble there! And I'm sure there's no need to fret, Tonks has been in worse scrapes than this, hasn't she? I'm sure it's nothing more than a minor splinching, you say she only apparated outside of the house!"

Carrie's stomach twisted into knots when the Auror's husband merely reached to bury his face in his hands, and she was just attempting to fight away the sudden urge she felt to start crying again when a voice behind her exclaimed:

"DAD!"

Carrie spun around along with everybody else to find Teddy stood just up the corridor, Andromeda just behind him. Carrie shuffled back towards the wall as the boy reached to push his grandmother's hand from his shoulder and hurried past the crowd until he was stood before his father, his eyes wide in panic.

"What happened to you?" he asked his father's bowed head in a strained whisper, and as Andromeda strode to catch up with him, Remus at last looked up at the boy and smiled wearily.

"That's a very good question, Ted." he said as the boy instantly threw his arms around him. "I'm sure it's going to be a very cool bedtime story." He consented to giving the boy a firm yet brief hug, arms going limp when Teddy wanted to know:

"What about Mum?"

Remus' gaze returned to his shoes.

"Your mother is with the healers as we speak." he mumbled. "I...I'm sure she'll be perfectly okay."

Teddy drew breath to ask another question, only for his grandmother to put a firm hand on his shoulder.

"Not now, Teddy." Carrie heard her whisper worriedly. "Just...leave your father be..."

"No...sit down, Ted." Remus decided, reaching to pat the vacant chair beside him, and Teddy dropped down onto the chair that Carrie had sat on previously, shooting his father a worried glance just as the girl had done.

"I think I've owled half of Wizarding Britain!" Andromeda announced with a nervous laugh. "That's why we took so long." She dropped down into a chair beside her grandson and reached to put an arm around his shoulders, and once again silence descended upon the corridor. Carrie thought of going to stand at Teddy's side, of trying to catch his eye in greeting, but she couldn't quite bear it. She could do nothing besides stare around at the silent crowd as guilt washed over her like icy water and by the time the door finally opened and another healer appeared, looking searchingly around the group until she spotted Remus, who straightened in his chair, Carrie was beginning to think that she might be drowning.

"Mr. Lupin?" All eyes were upon the healer as she came to a halt, her voice not much more than a murmur, but loud enough for the silent crowd to hear. "Your wife is stable." she informed the anxious man sat before her. "She's resting."

Whilst an audible sigh of relief resonated throughout the corridor, Carrie merely continued to wait with bated breath.

Remus' gaze did not wander to those around him as he cleared his throat, leaning forward ever so slightly as he asked:

"And...the baby?"

It was as if he had flicked some sort of switch, murmurs and whispers of surprise and confusion erupted through the gathered family and had she not been so focused upon what the healer was about to say, Carrie might have laughed at the dumbfounded expressions that Teddy and Andromeda turned to offer the side of Remus' head.

Remus seemed entirely unaware of the sudden commotion, however, his eyes fixed upon the green robed witch's face and Carrie stared too.

The healer slowly shook her head, and at the slight movement Remus' face became instantly buried once again in his hands.

"I'm very sorry." the healer told him softly. "The umbilical cord was splinched, there really was nothing we could do."

Carrie couldn't stand it. She reached to bite down upon her lip in an attempt not to cry.

_It's all my fault_, she found herself thinking as, still oblivious to the stare, Remus rose slowly to his feet and asked:

"Can I see her?"

Once he had gone, conversation out in the corridor seemed to become incredibly repetitive.

"Did you know?"

"No...did you?"

"No! Goodness, how long do you think they've had that under wraps for? Did you know about it?"

"No...oh how awful! I had no idea, did you?"

"No..."

But Carrie didn't hear any of it. She was much too busy wondering what on earth she was going to say, what she was going to do, how one made up for being so utterly foolish, for causing such terrible tragedy. After some minutes, whilst the repetitive conversation went on and on and Teddy resorted to burying his face in the front of his grandmother's robes, Carrie found herself gravitating towards the doors that Remus had disappeared through. She rose up on tip toes to peer through the glass window, only to find that the room within was mostly obscured by a curtain that had been drawn around the hospital bed.

"I guess Victoire was wrong then." a voice just behind her observed a few moments later when Carrie failed to spy any movement within, and Carrie spun around to find Teddy stood, his hands shoved deep into his pockets, hair today a rather alarming shade of green. "About the rabies, I mean..." he added when she simply stared at him with wide, nervous eyes.

"Oh...yes." Carrie wasn't quite sure whether or not to smile. "I suppose she was."

"Are you okay?" the young metamorphmagus asked, and she felt shy at his lack of anger.

"Aren't you supposed to...to hate me...or...or something?" she mumbled, cheeks flushed pink as she looked down at her borrowed shoes.

"Why on earth would I hate you?" Teddy wanted to know, frowning deeply, and Carrie shuffled her feet awkwardly.

"Well...I...I killed your baby brother or sister." She reached to hug her arms around herself self consciously.

Teddy gaped at her for a long moment before swallowing the lump that had formed in his throat.

"No you didn't!" he exclaimed, at last over his astonishment, but Carrie shook her head.

"Yes I did, I...if I...if I hadn't been so...so stupid...then your mum...she wouldn't have...the baby wouldn't have...!"

"It's not your fault Avery's a psychotic nutcase, Carrie." Teddy pointed out, utterly bemused by her reasoning. "Besides, if you weren't such an idiot he might have gotten hold of the mirror, and Merlin knows what would have happened then..." he trailed off at the sound of a swell in conversation amongst the adults and both children turned to spot a new edition to the crowd.

"Where is she?" Harry Potter was saying as he reached to prise his youngest son's arms from their tight hold around one of his legs. "Ah, there you are, Carrie."

Once again, Carrie felt as though everybody was staring at her.

"Your mum wants you home for some dinner." Harry explained, the only one to smile in what seemed to Carrie like forever. "I'm to take you straight home...I'm sure she'll be impressed by your speedy recovery!"

Luckily for her mother's sake, Carrie spent the rest of the evening feeling distinctly off colour, it was wonderful what such guilt could do to one's appetite and appearance.

"You're still terribly pale, love." Mrs. Winters had observed as the girl stared blankly down at her portion of chicken and mushroom soup. "Perhaps you better get to bed..."

Carrie had wasted no time in agreeing to this suggestion and she escaped up to her bedroom a little too quickly for somebody who had been deathly ill for the past few days. But once she had reached the door to her room, slowly reaching to push it open a little so that she could peer inside, she suddenly found herself much too afraid to go inside.

From what she could see of the dim space beyond the door, her parents had swept up the remainder of the debris until the room looked almost normal. The window, which she distinctly remembered being shattered, looked as good as new. She strongly suspected that this was more likely to be Remus' doing than anybody else's.

Carrie pushed the door open a little further and took a cautious step forward, turning to squint over towards the bed. The duvet and sheets had been stripped from the bed and replaced with fresh ones. The singed photographs had been put in the little waste paper bin by the desk...

And that was when Carrie spotted a thin, splintered piece of wood protruding from the surrounding bits of tattered paper, and the sight of the remains of Mildred's mirror made her leap backwards and reach to slam the door firmly shut.

That night, she slept in her parents' bed instead.

The following morning she sat out in her back garden, sipping orange squash, continuously listening for signs of life in the house next door, and when she finally did over hear voices of some sort she immediately crept back inside, through the kitchen and into the hallway, careful not to disturb her mother in the study, or the twins in the living room. She slipped silently out of the front door and made a run for the Lupins' front step, reaching to knock upon their door without giving herself much time to think. She was sure that if she waited more than a few seconds she might think better of knocking, for she had absolutely no idea what she wanted to say to any of the Lupins just then. She just felt that she ought say...something.

It was Remus who opened the door, and Carrie took a long moment to study his face as he peered down at her, smiling faintly. A night's recovery did not appear to have done much for his pale, rather lifeless face, the bandage still wrapped tightly around his head. Carrie suspected that he had been awake for most of the night, but he seemed far more alert and he managed to sound reasonably cheerful as he greeted her and stepped aside to let her inside.

"Ted's still asleep." he informed her as he turned to head for the living room. "I've called him several times, but he does seem intent on taking full advantage of his day off school. You're welcome to try and drag him out from under the blankets, though."

Carrie couldn't help but feel that this was not a mere suggestion, but despite this she wandered after the werewolf into the living room, coming to a halt just inside the door.

Tonks was sat upon the sofa, leant back against a mound of cushions, staring intently down at the small table in front of her, upon which was set a chess set, apparently midway through a game. Remus had barely lowered himself onto the floor opposite her, careful not to lean upon his heavily bandaged hand, when his wife informed him:

"Check mate."

The werewolf watched with a slight frown as his king was brutally beheaded by a white knight, before observing with a sigh:

"That makes it my turn to make the tea, then." He was about to get to his feet again when Tonks reached to grasp the arm of the chair, slowly easing herself up and onto her feet. Carrie couldn't help but think that the movement took significant effort and she felt her cheeks warming in shame once again.

"Nah, I'll do it." the Auror, whose hair was an uncharacteristically dull shade of black, decided as she carefully step out from behind the table. "You can do the washing up." she added as an afterthought as she headed stiffly for the door. Carrie fixed her gaze upon her shoes as Tonks passed her, only to jump a little to feel a hand upon her arm as the witch greeted:

"Morning, Carrie love."  
Carrie watched in silence as the witch shuffled out into the hallway and towards the kitchen, before turning to find Remus staring after her too.

The werewolf offered her a rather uncertain smile.

"She's...frighteningly intent on keeping herself occupied." he explained quietly, gesturing to the sofa, and Carrie spotted a couple of books and a pack of Exploding Snap cards amongst a few discarded tissues.

"D'you want a cup, Carrie?" Tonks called from the kitchen, and Carrie found the normality of the question somewhat unnerving.

"Yes please!" she called back after a moment, remembering that it was indeed a question that required an answer.

"How are you feeling today?" Remus asked, glancing briefly at the girl before busying himself with packing away the chess set. "You look much better, I think."

"I feel...very Muggle." Carrie decided, leaning back against the wall and looking down at her shoes again.

"Oh?" Despite the somewhat grim atmosphere, Remus sounded amused. "And what is that like, I wonder?"

"Stupid." Carrie supplied flatly, one hand balling into a frustrated fist. "Stupid and silly and dumb and...and..." she scowled at the floor, struggling to think of a word scathing enough.

"Clever." Remus interrupted. Carrie wished that he wouldn't try to make her feel better. It only made it worse. "You're very clever. And focused." he told her as he slid the last pawn into place and reached to pick up the board. "Dora was saying, last night, that you'd make a fine Auror...if you were a witch, of course."

"How did she work that out?" Carrie asked dismally. "I can't imagine she has a good word to say about me, just now." She found the wizard's kind smile difficult to comprehend.

"Well you found the mirror, didn't you? That's no small accomplishment..."

"Ted and Cleo helped me."

"Perhaps, but teamwork is just as important as anything else. And then of course, you were alive when we found you..." his gaze seemed vaguely awed as he said: "Do you have any idea just how powerful a Horcrux is? It is the most...the most foul and evil of magics!" his thumb scuffed the bandage upon his hand meaningfully. "And yet...here you are..." he reached to pick up his wand from the little table and with a vague wave sent the chess set soaring across the room and into a waiting chest of drawers. "The willpower and focus required not to just...give in...well!" he nodded towards the open door, smile suddenly rather pained. "As you can see, it's a well regarded Auror trait."

Carrie turned and, shuffling to the side a little, glanced down the hallway towards the kitchen, where Tonks was busy banging mugs around and generally making far more noise that was probably necessary. The child found herself with an odd urge to wander after the witch, and she crept softly out of the living room and along to the kitchen, coming to a halt beside the kitchen table.

She wanted to say something...something right. Something apologetic, but not upsetting...something...she wasn't quite sure...

"Let me guess," Tonks said, causing the child to jump at the sound of her voice. Carrie found that she had paused in her tea making to turn and regard the muggle with a carefully composed, closed expression. "You're sorry you killed the baby."

When Carrie merely stared at her in panicked horror, the Auror raised an eyebrow and turned back to the tea.

"My son tells me things." she said in simple explanation, reaching to splash milk into a trio of cups. "What he told me last night...well, it bothers me." Setting the milk bottle down, she turned back to regard Carrie with a surprisingly stern look. "It bothers me that you think all of this is your fault, like...like you think you've done something wicked."

Carrie pursed her lips together self consciously as the witch took a few steps forward, reaching to lay both hands upon her shoulders.

"We've enough wickedness in the world to be getting on with, Carrie love. There's no need to go looking for a bit more. Maybe there's something wicked in those bloody clumsy genes of mine, or maybe a fairy tale can drive a man to wicked things, but there's nothing wicked about asking your family for help." Tonks gave the child's shoulders a reassuring squeeze before turning back to the tea, and Carrie had thought it a simple slip of the tongue, but then the witch told her:

"We were going to call her Rae, if she were a girl. Aurelia...y'know...'cause of France..." she trailed off into silence and Carrie watched her shoulders rise and fall as she drew a deep, calming breath. "We were convinced it was a girl...I don't know why. Maybe just because we've already got a boy..." As she bowed her head, leaning forward against the counter top, for a terrible moment Carrie thought she might start crying, but then she straightened again and mused: "But then again, sometimes I reckon we've already as good as got ourselves a daughter, too..."

Carrie stared, mouth falling open ever so slightly in surprise, just as there came the distinct roar of flames as somebody exited the floo. Carrie turned to look back towards the living room as she heard murmured voices as Remus no doubt greeted the visitor, and then the werewolf stepped out into the hallway, followed by a man that Carrie had never seen before. He was a tall, bald black man dressed in distinctly expensive looking navy blue robes, and as he strode down the corridor the girl noticed that he had a newspaper tucked under one arm.

"Wotcher Kingsley." Tonks mumbled in greeting, and Carrie watched in surprise as the Minister for Magic strode silently across the room and reached to give the witch a brief yet firm hug. As he drew away, glancing sideways at Carrie and offering her a polite tip of the head, the wizard informed the Auror:

"I was just explaining to Remus that I'm putting you on compassionate leave for the next week at the very least."

"Oh..." Tonks did not sound entirely sure that she liked this revelation at all, and she frowned deeply and admitted: "Well...well actually, I'd like the distraction, I'm not sure I want to just..."

"It's either that," Kingsley interrupted, reaching to draw the newspaper out from under his arm and carefully unfolding it, "or I'm going to have to suspend you from work for the next month."

Carrie watched Tonks' eyes widen as that morning's edition of the Daily Prophet was tossed down onto the kitchen table for her inspection. The muggle tiptoed forwards to get a closer look.

DEATH EATER AUGUSTUS ROOKWOOD ARRESTED IN FRANCE, TWO MONTHS AFTER HIS REPORTED DEATH IN ARGENTINIA, the top headline read, whilst further down the page another bold title proclaimed: DEPUTY HEAD OF AURORS' FRANK CONFESSION: ARE BRITAIN'S STREETS AS SAFE AS THEY SEEM?

"Ah..." Tonks mumbled, reaching to scratch the back of her neck in a distinctly sheepish manner. "You...you've seen that, have you?"

"I certainly have." the Minister confirmed, as over by the door Remus visibly fought against a grin.

"Yeah...well, about that, Kingsley, I can explain." Tonks went on, drawing in a deep breath and finally managing to meet her employer's gaze with an innocent shrug. "I didn't think you'd find out about it. I had you down as more of a Quibbler man, myself..."

**Finish.**


End file.
